‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (almost) ready to shake up the MCU
Shawn Levy is no novice when it comes to rumors around his projects. Years on “Stranger Things” taught him how to tune out the noise. Yet even he’s found himself astonished by the sheer volume of speculation around “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“The rumors around this movie are overwhelming,” Levy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But so is the anticipation, which is a nice situation.”
Anticipation might be an understatement for a movie that is poised to be the theatrical event of the summer, when it opens on July 26. The first trailer, which aired during the Super Bowl, was viewed a record 365 million times online in its first 24 hours. The second, which dropped this week, broke another record – for the most “F-bombs” in the MCU (six in less than three minutes).
Much of that excitement is because this film marks the first time Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed Deadpool/ Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine are being folded into Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both properties existed previously under the 21st Century Fox banner.
When Disney acquired the studio’s film and TV assets in early 2019, Wolverine had already died in “Logan,” a third “Deadpool” was in development and Marvel was still firmly in the PG13 business, a rating that allows for only one F-bomb.
On a call with investors as the deal was going through, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger was already reassuring people that a Disney Deadpool would remain R-rated. Soon after, Reynolds also posted a photo on social media showing his character with Mickey Mouse ears on a yellow school bus labeled “Disney.” The meta humor, it seemed, was also firmly intact.
But what would the story be? Levy was announced as the film’s director in early 2022, coming in as a fan of Reynolds’ snarky tone and fourth wall breaking.
“There was no way I was going to reinvent a wheel, a tonal wheel, that works so beautifully,” Levy said. “Both Disney and Marvel, up and down the food chain, empowered Ryan and I to make this movie exactly as we dreamed.”
Things really started to really take shape when Jackman signed on that fall, however. It would mark the first time that the characters would be together in a movie since 2009’s “X-men Origins: Wolverine.” In the years since, Reynolds and Jackman have staged a very tongue in cheek, very funny “feud” with one another on social media, dancing around the idea of sharing the big screen again.
The dream seemed to have died after “Logan” and Jackman’s retirement as Wolverine. But death is never exactly final in the multiverse, and, they promised, this film would not interfere with “Logan.”
“It’s a really interesting duo,” Levy said. “They’re built for huge conflict with each other because they’re so different individually. But that makes for a very interesting story, because the best two hander stories, whether it’s ‘Midnight Run’ or ‘48 Hours’ or ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’ yes, it’s littered with conflict. But it’s ultimately about something more as well and that’s what audiences will see.”
The dynamic was also fueled by the real-life friendship between Levy, Jackman and Reynolds that goes back a decade off screen and includes films like “Free Guy” and “Real Steel.”
“The real benefit of being friends off set is that you can try crazy stuff without fear of falling. Because some of it won’t work and that will be momentarily embarrassing, but if you’re among friends, it’s okay to make a fool of yourself in the pursuit of something surprising and something unexpected,” Levy said. “This movie is filled with moments, both comedic and character based, that we didn’t expect and were the result of a freedom that that came from being friends.”
Like many productions, “Deadpool & Wolverine” was affected by the strikes. It was “pencils down” when the writers walked out, including for Reynolds who is credited on the script, and a complete shutdown when the actors went to the picket lines. (AP)