Box office will welcome Deadpool 2
Sequel to surprise smash expected to be another money-spinner
Everyone’s favourite foulmouthed crime-fighter is back.
Ryan Reynolds has squeezed back into Wade Wilson’s red leather bodysuit for Deadpool 2 (in theatres Friday), the 18A-rated sequel to the surprise smash hit that sliced off $783 million US at the worldwide box office in 2016.
Industry analysts say the film is tracking to earn at least $130 million in its first weekend in North American theatres.
This next instalment manages to pack in even more laughs, violence and pop-culture references than the first, as the swordwielding mercenary assembles his mutant X-Force team to save an abused teenager (Julian Dennison) from unleashing his fiery powers on the world.
Reynolds, 41, who co-wrote with the original movie’s writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, gave a hint of what you can expect from Deadpool’s latest.
The bromance between metallic mutant Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and the “Merc with a Mouth” is alive and well in the sequel, complete with tinny tush grabs and a spot-on Say Anything boombox parody. But the story’s core relationship is that of Deadpool and cyborg assassin Cable (Josh Brolin), who start as enemies but eventually find common ground in their tragic backgrounds.
“I love that we introduce Cable into this film as our big baddie and that it takes a bit of a turn,” Reynolds says. “By the end of their journey, Cable has given an inch and Deadpool takes a mile with their relationship. He’s obviously overplaying it with Cable and it’s a lot of fun.”
The sequel wildly ups the ante for self-referential humour, with Deadpool tossing out playful (and often expletive-filled) quips about fellow Marvel superheroes, including Wolverine, Black Widow and Black Panther. But one of the most memorable oneliners comes at the expense of Marvel’s comicbook movie rivals, as Deadpool taunts a foe: “You’re so dark. Are you sure you’re not from the DC Universe?” (a reference to the franchise’s characteristically dreary colour palette and lack of humour).
“We’re certainly not above poking fun at the distinction people draw between the universes,” Reese says. “People know the difference between a Marvel and DC movie, and understand the overall tone and experience they’re going to get. So we just had fun with it.”
Canadian singer Céline Dion is the last person you’d expect to hear in a Deadpool movie. But her legendary pipes make an appearance in the James Bondstyle opening credits, which roll over her delightfully overwrought Ashes.
“The studio presented us with a ton of hyper-talented, millennial-friendly singers and we thought: ‘Let’s just go straight to the legend first,’ ” Reynolds says. The actor emailed her, which was “tantamount to digital begging. I met her once in passing a couple of years ago, so I referenced that, and may have dropped that I’m also Canadian.”
If you thought the first movie was gruesome, then you’re in for a treat this go-around, as Deadpool decapitates his adversaries to the tune of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, gets blown to pieces in a gas explosion and viciously torn apart by a monstrous mutant. Fortunately, one of the Merc’s powers is regenerating limbs, leading to one of the film’s funniest sight gags as he totters about on infant-like legs.
“He got his arm cut off in the first one and we wanted to step it up just a notch by ripping him in half,” Wernick jokes. “I don’t know what we’re going to do on the third one,” which they plan to write after Drew Goddard’s planned X-Force spinoff with Deadpool, Cable and overly lucky mutant Domino (Zazie Beetz).
The film begins with Wade and girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) living blissfully, plotting to start a family and watching Barbra Streisand’s 1983 movie musical Yentl.
The drama’s Oscar-nominated song Papa, Can You Hear Me? becomes a running joke, after Wade marvels that it sounds just like Do You Want to Build a Snowman? from Disney’s Frozen.
Reynolds thought of the gag two years ago, after catching Yentl on TV and countless rewatches of Frozen with his two young children, James and Ines, with wife Blake Lively.
“It sounded like a very frighteningly similar song, so I made a little light of it,” he says.