Shawn Levy & Ryan Reynolds talk about the death of the X-Men.
Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy revealed why they didn’t show some major Marvel death scenes during the movie. Collider spoke to the filmmaker and Ryan Reynolds about their current box office smash. A lot of fans went into Deadpool & Wolverine expecting the X-Men to meet their grizzly end once again in live action. Though, their fate in the Wolverines universe is hinted at with grave markers, we don’t actually see what takes the mutants out. Levy explained that shooting the slaughter was discussed. But, he and Reynolds agreed that focusing on that would take audiences out of the story of Deadpool and Wolverine.
“Yep, we talked about it. We ended up doing it with a soundscape and with sound design. We did talk about it,” Levy revealed. “But ultimately, it felt like the specifics of those characters’ deaths don’t matter to this story as much as the way they haunt Logan. And so we chose to keep the focus on him.”
“It’s a little bit what you don’t see is more haunting than what you do see,” Reynolds mused. “I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, Shawn. And I felt like it would cheapen it if you’re seeing, you know, all these people, these kids, these grown-ups. The biggest win, I think, for us with the Wolverine character was two things. First thing, I know everybody loves the suit. Now, I love that we kind of use the suit as a hair shirt, as a kind of penance that he’s wearing this thing that is like a punishment that covers this body.”
The Deadpool actor continued, “I think there’s something really powerful in that. The way someone mourns in black. That is such an expression of mourning and sadness. So for him to have that for us was a huge win. That was probably the first thing we said to Hugh, after he told us he was in. ‘You gotta wear this suit, right?’ And he was in right away.”
“But, then the other one was really kind of scratching that itch of Wolverine. Yeah, the idea that the berserker rage takes over,” Reynolds argued. “He kills, and to a certain degree he can be indiscriminate about that killing. And that is a big part of the shame that we slowly unravel through Cassandra Nova, who is roaming around in his head.”
Dafne Keen’s Laura Reunites With Logan
For a lot of fans, seeing all these heroes from the past was the biggest treat from Deadpool & Wolverine. ComicBook’s Phase Zero podcast spoke to Dafne Keen about her emotional reunion with Hugh Jackman. As most Marvel fans know by now, the two starred in Logan together. So, that amazing conversation by the campfire in Deadpool & Wolverine carries such an emotional significance. The X-23 actress spoke to how her character had matured since the last time we all saw her on-screen. Keen would also mention the threads that connected this would-be father and daughter still remain tight.
“There’s something so wonderfully tragic… she never got to say she loved him or that she’s grateful to him, and she’s getting this opportunity now but it’s not really him,” she told us. “So it’s working with the tragedy that it’s so close, yet so far. The closest she’ll get is telling this man she essentially just met, but she loves because he’s Logan, how much she cares about him. She can’t say too much because he doesn’t know her, but she knows him. It’s so heartbreaking and so genius for them.”
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