Key Takeaways
- Deadpool & Wolverine was a hit for Marvel, blending humor, violence, and cameos.
- Ryan Reynolds had multiple ideas for integrating Deadpool into the MCU.
- Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine was crucial for the Deadpool movie to happen.
2024 was the year that Ryan Reynolds finally managed to bring Deadpool to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Deadpool & Wolverine proving to be a significant hit for Marvel Studios. The film brought elements of humor, extreme violence, and tons of cameo appearances from previous Marvel movies to create something special and unique in comparison to everything that has come before it.
The movie was a sequel to Deadpool and Deadpool 2, which were released in 2016 and 2018, respectively. The lengthy gap between them and the third movie was due to how difficult it was to fit the Merc with the Mouth into the MCU. The character is so different from anything else in that universe that it was never going to be a simple task to integrate him. However, it wasn’t because of a lack of effort on Reynolds’ behalf, as he pitched multiple ideas.
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During the latest Variety Actors On Actors between Reynolds and Andrew Garfield, the Deadpool actor revealed his ideas before they landed on what people saw on the big screen. Reynolds said, “The first pitch I had for Marvel and Kevin Feige five years ago was a Deadpool/Wolverine movie in the Rashomon style, which is his perspective and mine and then an objective, and they said, ‘No.’ I pitched the most idiotic movie, one was a Sundance movie I pitched them. No special effects, no conflict, there might be a scene like any good Sundance movie that a four-minute oner of me taking a sh*t or p****ng or something that just tells the audience this is raw and vulnerable and we’re going there. Then I pitched one where I’m like it’s a two-hander with me and the hunter who shot Bambi’s mom, and their answer was, ‘We don’t touch Bambi, Ryan.’ Okay, we don’t touch Bambi. So, it was a year-and-a-half of tap dancing until Hugh [Jackman] called and said, ‘I want to come back and do this.'”
Jackman’s decision to don the claws once more and step back into his iconic role of Wolverine was such a pivotal turning point for the discussions between Reynolds and Marvel, which showcases how important he was to making the movie happen. However, that ended up being the perfect situation, considering how many years the two actors had spent teasing the idea of being in a film together with these two characters.
Reynolds having so many ideas for what Deadpool would look like in the MCU isn’t a huge surprise because he’s been campaigning for the character throughout his entire career in one form or another. He worked hard to make this happen and even though many of his ideas weren’t chosen, the open conversation that he has with Marvel is a positive situation for Deadpool’s future, and is also one of the reasons Deadpool & Wolverine was a success.
Ultimately, audiences were finally able to experience Deadpool in the MCU, even if it had nothing to do with Bambi or any of Reynolds’ other initial pitches. However, he did get to work alongside Wolverine, which was something that he wanted to do from his initial conversations with Marvel. This proved that not all of his ideas were ignored, which could be a positive sign for future Deadpool projects.
Deadpool
Deadpool is a franchise focused on the Marvel antihero Deadpool, the cheeky red masked mutant who is famous for often breaking the fourth wall. Originally a terminally ill cancer patient, Deadpool was given a serum that activated a gene in his body to heal his illness. This left him severely disfigured, hence his trademark outfit.