In Deadpool 3, the title character meets Wolverine, once again played by Hugh Jackman. But it wasn’t always meant to be that way. Originally, lead actor Ryan Reynolds had over 18 other ideas that he presented to Marvel.
What’s the status of Deadpool 3? After the first two films of the quirky anti-hero were well received by fans and scored 90 % (Part 1) and 85 % (Part 2) on Rotten Tomatoes, it was only a matter of time before Deadpool 3 would arrive.
The film is set to be released this year, on July 24, 2024. It’s expected to be just as raunchy as its predecessors and to push the boundaries of what is typically allowed in Marvel films.
Ryan Reynolds will reprise his role, as usual, and he had a significant say in the content again. He is so passionate about the character that he approached the producing studio Marvel with his own ideas. However, some of these ideas were ultimately too unconventional for Marvel head Kevin Feige.
A story from three perspectives
What ideas did Ryan Reynolds have? The actor recently shared in an interview with Empire that he had developed over 18 different ideas for the third installment of the Deadpool series.
One of them is inspired by a true film classic, namely Rashomon by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. This 1950 film tells the same story three times from different perspectives. At the time, this was almost revolutionary and influenced many other filmmakers.
Ryan Reynolds found the idea of utilizing this concept for Deadpool quite intriguing. Another of his ideas was to make the film with a comparatively small budget of 10 million US dollars and take it to indie festivals like the Sundance Film Festival.
Reynolds’ ideas varied in scale, he recounts. Ultimately, however, Marvel head Kevin Feige had to give his approval. And that was where things fell through.
What does Kevin Feige say about it? The majority of Reynolds’ ideas were rejected by the Marvel head. This was mainly due to the fact that he himself was unsure how to handle the character Deadpool after the acquisition by Disney in the future. He commented:
The truth is that I wasn’t even sure how to incorporate Deadpool. I thought a lot about how to integrate mutants and the X-Men [into the MCU], and I thought there had to be more than just playing the hits. But the truth is, Ryan is an idea machine.
Kevin Feige via empireonline.com
How was the situation resolved? The team around Ryan Reynolds took some time in finding ideas. When suddenly Hugh Jackman expressed his willingness to return as Wolverine, they changed direction and opted for a team-up of the two unusual superheroes.
From that point on, everything moved very quickly. According to executive producer Wendy Jacobsen, within just two months all the wheels were set in motion to produce the film.
On July 24, we will see whether Deadpool 3 can measure up to its predecessors. With Wolverine, at least there’s an interesting new addition.
