A billion dollars made it clear Deadpool would be a major part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward. But how would that work? Well, a new report claims Ryan Reynolds is working on his next story, and it once again involves the X-Men.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Reynolds is “working on various treatments for an ensemble film featuring three or four X-Men characters” that would see Deadpool as a supporting character, not the star. Apparently, the actor believes “keeping his f-bomb wielding anti-hero more on the sidelines could allow for the X-Men characters to be used in unexpected way.”
The caveat here is that this is all very early days. “Treatment” is basically just a fancy Hollywood word for “idea.” It’s not a script. It’s more of a general outline creatives can bring to a studio to get a writer and director on board to flesh things out more fully. Plus, the trade reports this is all happening outside of Marvel for now. That’ll change but it’s just Reynolds and his team. That means this is not the same thing as the specific X-Men project that’s been bubbling at the studio for about a year, written by Michael Lesslie.
It’s also worth noting that Reynolds has previously been dead set about Deadpool not officially joining any of those teams. So, whatever this is, it’s gonna be more unique than a traditional team-up. “I think Deadpool works so well appearing with the X-Men and Avengers, but he always needs to stay an outsider,” he said a few months back. “His ultimate dream is to be accepted and appreciated. But he can’t be accepted. His coping mechanism of deflecting shame through humor works only when used to pave over his many inadequacies. If and when he does become an Avenger or X-Man, we’re at the end of his journey.”
So let’s speculate. Let’s say the next Deadpool movie features the R-rated character facing off with, or teaming up, with some X-Men. Who would you like to see? Even before that, are these characters that should be established already, such as Channing Tatum’s Gambit, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, or Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine? Or new characters? Personally, I think it could be interesting for Deadpool to tag along with some of the younger X-Men characters, be that a Jubilee or Kid Omega or just younger versions of more established characters, in a mentor-mentee role. Or you can flip that. Put Deadpool as the more inexperienced character along with a Cyclops, Storm, Rogue, etc. The possibilities are quite literally endless.
Which is why Reynolds is just now figuring it out. If he does settle on something, though, you can be sure this would all be after the events of Avengers: Secret Wars and take place firmly past the Infinity Saga as well as the Multiverse Saga. Maybe this is the kick-off of the Mutant Saga.
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