Anna Daniels
Ever since Disney acquired the film and television assets of Fox Studios in March 2019, Mighty Marvel fans have been beside themselves with anticipation. The move meant that finally, at long last, some of the venerable comic publisher’s most iconic properties — such as the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer, to name just a few — would have all of their film rights housed with the same studio. No longer would the world of the Avengers be kept separate from the world of mutants; no more would we be sadly aware that, no matter where the Guardians of the Galaxy’s adventure took them, they would never encounter Galactus. New, exciting possibilities for future Big Bads were suddenly on the table (Doctor freakin’ Doom, anyone?), and we could rest secure in the knowledge that no matter how badly Fox had fumbled the X-Men franchise in recent years, a big, fat reboot is on the way from the studio that is seemingly incapable of doing any wrong.
Then, suddenly, we remembered: holy crap, Deadpool is one of Fox’s properties! What could this mean? After all, the Merc with a Mouth practically pioneered R-rated superhero films, singlehandedly proving that they were viable; both 2016’s Deadpool and 2018’s Deadpool 2 cashed in big at the box office, and won the foul-mouthed anti-hero legions of new, faithful fans, largely thanks to the presence of star Ryan Reynolds in the role he was unquestionably born to play. Would Mickey Mouse really deign to give us more R-rated Deadpool films, or would he be reduced to a watered-down, PG-13 shadow of his former self? Would Reynolds, along with all of the Fox franchise’s other stars, be (gasp) recast?
Well, the very same day the Fox/Disney deal closed, we got some tentative answers to some of these questions. Reynolds, of course, took to Twitter to post a picture of himself in costume sporting Mickey Mouse ears while aboard a school bus, with the caption, “Feels like the first day of ‘Pool.” Reliable outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter assured us that, according to their sources, Deadpool would remain R-rated, and would be the only X-Man not to be recast.
Then… a whole bunch of silence. San Diego Comic-Con and D23 both came and went, with nary a mention of Deadpool’s cinematic future. Finally, October 2019 brought a small trickle of news: Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, fresh off of scripting Zombieland: Double Tap, told Entertainment Weekly that they still had high hopes for a third installment. “We’re always in touch with Ryan,” Wernick said. “I think the party line and truth is we’re all still figuring it out… we’ve got a lot of projects lined up, but we wake up thinking about Deadpool, and we go to sleep thinking about Deadpool.”
Near-simultaneously, Reynolds tweeted a picture of himself loitering in the offices of Marvel Studios, giving the most solid indication yet that the involved parties were actually having some kind of a conversation. “Auditioned for the role of ‘Anthony Stark,'” Reynolds captioned the pic. “Didn’t come even remotely close, but the nice man with the taser escorted me to the ground.”
Finally, in late December 2019, a New Years’ gift: during an appearance on Live! with Kelly and Ryan, Reynolds said, “We’re working on [Deadpool 3] right now with the whole team. We’re over at Marvel [Studios] now, which is like the big leagues all of the sudden. It’s kinda crazy. So yeah, we’re working on it.” (via Uproxx)
That’s right, it only took nine freaking months of endless speculation, but it’s now official: in the parlance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Deadpool… will return. Here’s everything we know so far about Deadpool 3.
Written by: Looper
