Ryan Reynolds may have shepherded Deadpool through a dozen years stuck in development hell after originally signing on to play the Merc with a Mouth in 2004, but the actor is going to have to relinquish some degree of creative control now that the property is in the possession of Marvel Studios.
As well as being the leading man of Fox’s duology, Reynolds also produced the two Deadpool movies and had a heavy hand in their respective development and writing processes, and he even scored his first screenplay credit on the sequel. However, everything that happens in the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes through Kevin Feige, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
In fact, by the time Phase Four draws to a close, the company’s Chief Creative Officer will have been named as the sole producer on 28 of the franchise’s 34 feature-length installments, and three of those see him share that billing with Sony’s Amy Pascal on the Spider-Man series. Nonetheless, insider Daniel Richtman is reporting that Reynolds want to have a major say in all of Deadpool’s MCU appearances, including cameos in other movies.
“[He] wants to decide on Deadpool’s direction every time he is in a non-Deadpool movie,” says the tipster.
As the shared universe’s first R-rated effort, Marvel are already throwing caution to the wind and breaking new ground when it comes to Deadpool 3‘s mere existence, and by those metrics you could imagine Reynolds having a different level of behind the scenes sway compared to the majority of his contemporaries. After all, many of the MCU’s biggest names are free to make suggestions about how their characters are treated whenever crossovers are on the cards, so it stands to reason that Reynolds will be afforded the same sort of influence when it comes to the irreverent, foul-mouthed and self-aware assassin.