Don’t let the alleged appointment of Drew Goddard fool you. When it comes to the gestating Deadpool 2 script, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are still the “heart of the operation.”
That’s according to the Merc With a Mouth himself, Ryan Reynolds, who took to Twitter yesterday evening to clarify Reese and Wernick’s ongoing involvement. What’s interesting here is that Reynolds doesn’t actually mention Goddard’s name whatsoever, which is either an innocuous oversight or a hint that Goddard’s contribution – or lack thereof – is strictly limited to dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s of Deadpool‘s next adventure.
Are we reading too much into things? Perhaps. But you’ll be able to find the latest status report from Ryan Reynolds, below.
.@RhettReese and Paul Wernick are still very much writing the screenplay. They're the heartbeat of the whole operation. https://t.co/7XyZvUlUSi
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) February 23, 2017
Given how the actor was heavily involved in bringing the Merc With a Mouth to the silver screen in the first place, it’s safe to assume that he knows the ins and outs of Fox’s anti-hero sequel. Nevertheless, the fact that Reese and Wernick are still in the process of writing Deadpool 2‘s screenplay explains why the studio has kept any and all casting rumors under lock and key.
To date, Kerry Washington and Pierce Brosnan have been linked to the parts of Domino and Cable, respectively, and though Deadpool’s founding father Rob Liefeld is confident the eventual announcement will be enough to blow people’s minds, Fox clearly wants to have a finished script locked in before officially courting its supporting players.
Deadpool 2 is, at the time of writing, without a release date. Assuming the necessary pieces fall into place though, the Merc With a Mouth’s sophomore effort could enter production by the end of 2017, at which point we’ll surely know more about the ensemble cast – whether it features Washington and Brosnan or not.