Deadpool is destroying box office records, and surprising no one except for studio executives that thought the film would have minimal success. Shame on them. Deadpool was a perfect chance to educate the powers that be that R-rated superhero films can work at the box office. So, what does this mean for the sequel?
News came the other day that a sequel has already been greenlit, and fans are already trying to guess where the franchise will head next. The film’s screenwriters have already stated that the sequel won’t be getting a budget raise, even the film has grossed $172,371,048 domestically as of Feb 17. This is almost three times what the films $58 M budget was!
Ryan Reynold as ‘Deadpool’ in the hunt for Francis. Image: 20th Century Fox/ Marvel
The predominate fan theory is that Cable, a fan favorite member of the X-Men, will be making his big screen début in the sequel. This theory is all coming from a joke in the post credit scene of the film where Reynolds (DP) talks about the sequel. Talking with Collider, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the film’s screenwriters) have revealed that the plan is for Cable to not just be in a cameo, or just thrown in randomly. For this to work, Deadpool will have to bring any potential characters added into the sequel into his world, rather than he go into theirs. This will help to maintain the feel of the first film for the sequel:
“I think there’s a real conceptual difference between taking other characters and big things and bringing them into Deadpool’s reasonably small, gritty world and the opposite, taking Deadpool and placing him among big ensembles who are fighting aliens or in the future where he and Cable are doing something in the future.
I think if Cable and Deadpool team up, it will likely be in Deadpool’s world. That allows us to control that budgetary thing a little more; I don’t think we’re gonna see DP and Cable on some far-flung planet 300 years from now because I just feel like that’s gonna be expensive, A, and will also take away from the relatability of DP. I think at this stage in the game it’s about taking other people and dropping them into this reasonably insular, gritty, urban, dark world of DP.”
Ryan Reynold as ‘Deadpool’ can you say Hero shot? Image: 20th Century Fox/ Marvel
They don’t want to get a big budget for DP 2, and they have their reasons for not wanting it. Wernick says:
“We don’t want $150 million to go make the next movie, that’s not Deadpool. DP doesn’t lift cities up into the air or battle aliens coming down to earth, that’s just not Deadpool. So we’re happy in that little small budget range that they have us in; we don’t wanna blow this next one out.”
How many X-Men characters can we expect to see in the sequel? Reese says that there are many reasons that impact this final decision:
“It’s a legal list but it’s also a creative list, because X-Men: Apocalypse has plans, they have plans for future X-Men movies, and we also have timeline issues. We have actors who are now playing the parts who are a younger generation, we have the older actors – where does Deadpool’s timeline fit in with the others?
Deadpool grips his prize, a tasty chimichanga!
These are all things that Simon Kinberg worries about for the moment instead of us. Colossus was easy to do because he’s chrome and there was no live-action actor playing him, Negasonic was easy to do because she’s a very minor character, but if you start talking about Professor X or Beast you do start running into timeline issues and we’re gonna need guidelines on that.”
No matter what happens, the sequel will be another hit for 20th Century Fox. Usually films can keep the momentum from the first film going into the second one, as long as it is made in a timely manner. Deadpool has been out two weeks, and is not showing signs of slowing down any time soon.
In more news, there is a fan petition that has been set up to get Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool to host Saturday Night Live over at Change.org. The petition is going strong, it is at 49,000 signatures and climbing.
