Ryan Reynolds Working on A New Deadpool/X-Men Movie
If you had any doubts about his future in the MCU, you can rest assured that Deadpool will be sticking around the franchise for some time. An exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Ryan Reynolds is currently working on a new Deadpool movie, but not a solo film like his first two outings. This would be an ensemble movie with “three or four X-Men characters,” possibly with Deadpool in a supporting role to the starring X-Men. This film is in the very early stages, with Reynolds only “exploring ideas” right now, but the intention is for more Deadpool in more X-Men team-ups. This shouldn’t be surprising, as last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine was a massive hit, earning $1,338,073,645 worldwide, almost doubling the takes of the previous two Deadpool films and giving Marvel its first win since the modestly successful Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (and it’s last win to this point, depending on how well Thunderbolts* does). THR clarifies that Reynolds’ film will not be the announced X-Men movie being written by Michael Lesslie. While his appearance hasn’t been announced yet, Reynolds is expected to play Deadpool again in either Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret War (or both), as a scene with him and Thor was foretold in Deadpool & Wolverine.
I like the idea of Deadpool showing up as a supporting character in a mini X-Men movie; it’s a good way to keep the character around without overexposing him, which I’m sure Marvel is tempted to do now that he’s one of the few they have left who can draw a crowd. It could even be better for Deadpool, whose schtick is probably better in small doses; if he’s going to show up more often than a solo movie every few years, giving him limited screen time may keep him from growing stale. It would also be nice if he showed up in better movies; Deadpool & Wolverine was a hit, but people gave the bad plot and characterizations a lot of leeway, probably because it was funny, had some good action, and brought two beloved character/actor pairings back to the screen. My suspicion is that the architect of most of the bad stuff was Zeb Wells, the She-Hulk writer Kevin Feige forced on Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who wrote the previous two Deadpool films. You can tell where his influence intruded, like with Vanessa, who went from a fun, loving, goofy, likable love interest to the usual cold, selfish, modern MCU shrew that peppered She-Hulk and pretty much every other thing Marvel has made recently. (“I’m leaving you because you don’t have high enough aspirations.” How is this even the same person?) That’ll be Ryan Reynolds’ biggest challenge: keeping the Marvel machine’s grubby hands off his movie. I don’t anticipate he’ll succeed.
As for which X-Men Reynolds should use, I think Colossus is the most obvious choice. He and Deadpool bounce off each other well in the first two Deadpool movies, and he was barely in Deadpool & Wolverine. In a leading role, Colossus could be played straighter, with him getting to do more than act as a contrast to Deadpool’s moral deficiency. I’d also like the other two X-Men mainstays from the series, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio, but I don’t want to limit Reynolds’ ability to mix things up with some different characters, so maybe they could be supporting players, too. I’d be surprised if Marvel doesn’t insist on Wolverine being one of the leads, but if they decide to take some chances, Beast would be a good addition, and there should be at least one woman just because Deadpool won’t be able to resist being an asshole to her. Imagine Wade pouring water on Rogue and Gambit’s burgeoning relationship. The X-Men squad could head to Madripoor on a mission and run into Deadpool there, after which he’s reluctantly forced to help them. It’ll be interesting to see what Reynolds goes with (or what he’s allowed to go with) if this all pans out.
Let us know what X-Men you’d like to see in Ryan Reynolds’ next Deadpool movie in the comments!
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Comments (2)
If they make the X-Men the center of the MCU’s next phase or phases or saga or whatever, they should take advantage of the MCU structure and go cosmic. Instead of using the mutant vs. mutant setup or bringing back William Striker for the 900th time, they should do the Shi’ar Empire, the Brood, and Mojo. Show people how nuts X-Men stories can be, particularly if they do The Dark Phoenix Saga yet again (although that should be down the road; let the last disaster they made of it fade a little). They can also go to the Savage Land for some more Earthbound stories, which would at least be a new environment. They could even bring in Sauron for a mid-movie fight.
It has to be done just because of his prior success. To make a billion or more is nuts and Reynolds pulled it off, even though I didn’t care for it much. If something makes good money, you gotta tap the well until it’s dry. This is why we keep getting John Wick.
X-Men was thing thing, even more than Star Wars, but after all this time, and although I watched all the movies, I’m not sure I’d be into it like I used to be. I liked that show The Gifted, or at least the beginning of it. I liked that outcast, underground special gifted youngster feeling that it used to have.