In the last few months, 20th Century Fox has made a big push in terms of green-lighting comic book adaptations. X-Men: Days of Future Past arrives next week, and will presumably open the door for a more cohesive X-Men franchise in the future, starting with X-Men: Apocalypse in May 2016, a third Wolverine solo film in March of 2017, and the recently-announced Gambit spin-off with Channing Tatum. On top of that, Josh Trank is hard at work on rebooting The Fantastic Four, which arrives in 2015 and already has a sequel slated for July 2017.
On top of all that, there’s also an “Untitled Fox/Marvel movie” announced for July 2018, which could be a number of things, including another X-Men film, the X-Force movie that’s in the works, or, dare I say it, that long-gestating Deadpool movie we’ve been waiting for.
Deadpool was a big part of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, much to the dismay of fans thanks to the complete disregard for what makes the character so special. A solo Deadpool movie has been waiting for a greenlight for years now, and already has a script from Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and the support of Ryan Reynolds. However, because of the movie’s dark, over the top, and incredibly violent nature, studio executives have been a bit too nervous to put it into production.
According to producer Lauren Shuler Donner though, the movie is still in the cards at the studio, and is something that she would really like to see happen. In a recent interview with Hey U Guys, she was asked about Deadpool and had the following to say:
“We so want to make it. We’re getting there. I think it will, but one thing now is the rating. If we make it a smaller budget movie, we can go for the R-Rating. If not, then we push the boundaries of PG-13 which is alright too. We just don’t want to saturate the market to the point where it’s just not special anymore.”
Making a smaller budget, hard-R adaptation is something fans, Ryan Reynolds, and Reese and Wernick have been suggesting for years, so honestly, it’s a bit frustrating to hear Donner bring it up again. Either the studio didn’t listen to what the people behind the movie had to say, or are just now coming around to their ideas.
Donner also gives an update on how we should feel about X-Men: The Last Stand and Origns: Wolverine now that Days of Future Past is upon us, but since it contains possible spoilers, I won’t repeat her comments here. If you’re interested, however, check out the video below:
In any case, what do you think of this update? Would you still like to see a Deadpool movie? Let us know in the comments section!