Without the help of Hugh Jackman, the third installment of Deadpool may not have happened.
What’s Happening:
- The Hollywood Reporter shared a look into the importance of Hugh Jackman in the development of Deadpool 3.
- Ryan Reynolds intended on making one more Deadpool movie. Finding the correct story took several years of development and two incredibly important collaborations.
- Reynolds, while on the set of The Adam Project, reached out to director Shawn Levy in hopes of teaming up with the director to develop the sequel.
- The pair joined forces and Reynolds noted “We knew we wanted to work together as much as humanly possible until we crawl into a box and turn into skeletons, but I wasn’t totally certain it would be in that Marvel space because it isn’t original IP. … It would technically be a sequel, and there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it.”
- The duo spent months working with Deadpool and Deadpool 2 screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese while also enlisting the help of writer Zeb Wells to come up with story ideas. The entire team had weekly meetings with Marvel head Kevin Feige, but ultimately struggled to create a story unique to the series.
- Levy recalled the moment they almost held off on the sequel, saying “Ryan and I were right at the edge of saying to Kevin, ‘You know what? Maybe now is not the right moment because we’re not coming up with a story… And that is the moment when Ryan’s phone rang, and it was Hugh calling from his car.”
- On August 15th 2022, Hugh Jackman was on a weeklong vacation from his stint in Broadway’s The Music Man. While sitting on the beach contemplating future projects, the actor came up with the superhero collaboration now known as Deadpool & Wolverine.
- Even after wrapping up Wolverine’s story in Logan, Jackman called Reynolds and pitched the idea to him. Serendipitously, Reynolds was unpreparedly headed to a meeting with Feige to discuss the film.
- Reynolds recalls the meeting, telling Feige “‘This is a one-in-a-billion chance. I really feel like this is what we’ve been looking for.'”
- Jackman saw this crossover as a way to explore a new side of Wolverine, noting that everything about the project felt fresh and new for the character.
- The three, who are great friends, found comfort to fail and succeed with each other on set, promising a uniquely entertaining entry into the superhero film sphere.
- While straying away from any plot details, the trio did tease what kind of dynamic the pair will have. “If you’re looking at the Venn diagram or the overlap of these two characters, as vastly different as they are, the thing they have most in common is shame,” Reynolds explained. “They both live in this violent shame cycle. Deadpool’s a very verbose character. He’s very feminine and kind of open and childlike. And putting that next to a character whose archetype is very Clint Eastwood creates something pretty interesting.”
- Deadpool & Wolverine hits theatres on July 26th.
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