After doing Deadpool 2, Ryan Reynolds was very much interested in bringing the fan-favorite character back on screen for another movie but his initial plans were not very ambitious. As Disney, Marvel Studios’ parent company, bought 20th Century Fox in 2019, Fox-verse X-Men characters were to be MCU-bound and that includes Reynolds’ Deadpool. Here’s how he pulled off the third installment of the mega MCU project.
Ryan Reynolds Originally Planned Deadpool 3 With A Minimal Budget
Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine. Image Credit: Marvel Studios
Deadpool was a surprising hit, 20th Century Fox originally did not have much faith in Ryan Reynolds’ project. But as the first installment of the franchise, Deadpool made with a $58 million production budget and went on to achieve a stunning $782.8 million worldwide, the future of the movie under the banner of Fox was secured. Deadpool 2 made with a higher budget of $110 million, claimed $785.8 million at the box office. However, following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the future of the character seemed to be in the dark.
But Reynolds was far from giving up. The actor who popularized the Merc with the Mouth initially planned the third Deadpool movie with the most minimalist budget possible keeping the tone of an indie film that would be “a Rashomon story that had these three different points of view,” Reynolds told Entertainment Weekly.
SUGGESTED: Hugh Jackman Once Asked Ryan Reynolds To ‘Stop Play’ Deadpool
The 47-year-old explained, “Literally, it was a $5 or $6 million budget with no special effects. It was just a talkie-talkie road trip with me and [Karan Soni’s character] Dopinder and some of the things we collected and saw along the way.” The third movie “wasn’t meant to be an event movie. If we’re on our way to Point C, it was meant to just get us to Point B. That was the weirdest one. I liked it. I thought it was kind of fun.”
Gladly, it worked out for the best, Reynolds impressed MCU execs with the refined version of the narrative but he had to convince director Shawn Levy before.
Hugh Jackman’s Return And Ryan Reynolds Convinced Shawn Levy To Direct Deadpool & Wolverine
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine. Image Credit: Marvel Studios
It was long before Deadpool 3 had the final title card or Hugh Jackman’s return, Reynolds was on a mission to convince his Free Guy and The Adam Project director Shawn Levy. The actor was dead set on bringing Levy to sit on the director’s chair for the project.
However, there was a mild hesitation on Levy’s part as Reynolds brought the idea of a third Deadpool movie to the director on the set of Netflix’s The Adam Project. It seemed that he was more into directing original movies rather than sequels. Of course, he was close to directing Ezra Miller-starrer DC movie The Flash.
But Jackman’s willingness to return as Wolverine gave the project a swift push that created the grand storyline. “From the moment I saw Deadpool 2… I had literally announced maybe a couple of weeks before that Logan was going to be my last, and I remember watching it and I’m 15 minutes in going, ‘f–ck!’ I could feel it,” Jackman told EW.
Although Reynolds joked about Jackman’s epiphany (an epiphany he got while driving with his two kids in the backseat) “masquerading as a midlife crisis,” it saves the very essence of the project. And the Australian actor “learned to obey them, trust them,” he said adding, “You never really know which way they’re going to take you.”
As far as Levy is concerned, he could finally see the intrinsic value of the movie, “With the character of Wade, especially in combination with the character of Logan, I saw that story beyond the franchise value.”
Deadpool & Wolverine, the third installment of the franchise and first under the Marvel Studios, has defied all odds and has created the stunning hype that Marvel only kept the movie for the 2024 release calendar.
Deadpool & Wolverine is slated for July 26 release.
