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The world had to wait six years to see Ryan Reynolds suit up as the Merc with a Mouth following the commercial success of 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” but it’s fair to say the wait was worth it. The resulting third installment in the franchise was “Deadpool & Wolverine” which, as the title implies, finally united Reynolds on screen with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. It was a resounding success, ranking as one of the biggest movies of 2024. Making this movie a reality was no small task, and a myriad of wild ideas were thrown around before they landed on this team-up.
“Assembled: The Making of Deadpool & Wolverine” is now streaming on Disney+ and offers a lot of insight from the filmmakers into how the movie was made. “I think Ryan had 19, 20 ideas throwing anything at the wall,” Reynolds said in the documentary. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige rejected several pitches for “Deadpool 3,” including a low-budget “Sundance” version. None of those ideas rose to the level required to give the film the green light.
A big part of the problem is that they had to make Deadpool fit in with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. One possible solution to that problem, per producer Wendy Jacobson, was to make it seem as though Deadpool was hanging around in the MCU the whole time. As she explained in the documentary:
“We had a ‘Deadpool’s Deleted Scenes Extravaganza’ where we were going to try and show that he was in the MCU the whole time — you just didn’t see his scenes, they were all on the cutting room floor. We were really just trying to find a reason for this movie to be.”
Ryan Reynolds worked hard to make Deapool make sense in the MCU
“At one point, Ryan had this idea for a ‘Thor 2’ frame-for-frame remake until the end of the first act,” Jacobson previously explained of an early idea Reynolds had for “Deadpool 3.” The number of ways this movie could have been different had Marvel said yes to another idea is dizzying to consider.
The above artwork was shown in the documentary to help illustrate how this proposed “‘Deadpool’s Deleted Scenes Extravaganza” sequence might have played out. Deadpool was also shown sort of cleverly interacting with Thanos. This idea is very meta and would have served the character well. Would it have served the MCU, though? That’s the bigger question. Ultimately, the powers that be decided against it. Feige, speaking in the doc, explained that they worked hard with Reynolds to find the right idea.
“We spent a long time working with Ryan to come up with the best idea. Ryan Reynolds is an idea machine. He is almost wholly responsible for bringing that character to the big screen. He believed in it back when very few other people did, in a very different time for Marvel movies, and created something entirely unique.”
In the end, it was Hugh Jackman who saved “Deadpool 3” with a single phone call when he decided that he wanted to be in the movie. From there, it was off to the races. Shawn Levy (“Real Steel,” “The Adam Project”) ended up in the director’s chair and it’s hard to imagine things going better, all things considered. “Deadpool & Wolverine” now ranks as the biggest R-rated movie in history, and these characters were successfully integrated into the MCU without the need for such an ambitious gimmick. Admittedly, that might have been fun to see but it’s one of those things that’s more of a funny idea than it is a practical one.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is streaming now on Disney+. You can also grab a copy of the movie on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD via Amazon.
