Exclusive: Deadpool Christmas Special In The Works At Disney
Marvel is developing a Deadpool Christmas special for Disney+.
A Deadpool Christmas special is being developed by Marvel Studios to streaming on Disney+. According to our trusted and proven sources, Marvel is looking to expand on the profitable and beloved Ryan Reynolds series by bringing some holiday cheer to the franchise. Interestingly, Ryan Reynolds just recently revealed that he had co-written a full Deadpool Christmas feature film a number of years ago with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, though it is not currently known whether the two projects will be related.
While the thought of the hyperviolent, profane, and fourth-wall-breaking Deadpool and the Christmas season might not automatically seem like the most natural fit, there is actually quite a bit of precedent for the pairing. After the success of Deadpool 2 in the spring of 2018, 20th Century Fox released a new edit of the film titled Once Upon a Deadpool that December, which cut down the gore and profanity to achieve a PG-13 rating. It also included a framing device in which Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, as always) held actor/director Fred Savage hostage in a Christmas setting in an extended riff on The Princess Bride.
But going back even further, Deadpool and Christmas have come together multiple times in Marvel Comics. On one occasion, Deadpool and Spider-Man teamed up to save the holiday from a vengeful god, and on another, Wade Wilson found himself on the opposite side of things when he is hired by all the children who received no presents to assassinate Santa Claus. If nothing else, it seems that Deadpool can still stay in classic character mode even with a Christmas theme.
According to Ryan Reynolds, the Deadpool Christmas script he co-wrote with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (who co-wrote the first two movies and the upcoming third) “got lost in the shuffle” of the enormous, years-long acquisition of 20th Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company. It seems entirely possible that Disney realize it had a full screenplay featuring one of the most popular superheroes in the world just kicking around and decided to make something of it. It could also just be good synergy, as a holiday special is a time-honored, public-domain tradition of everyone from the Masters of the Universe to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
In recent years, Disney has also been leaning increasingly heavily toward producing streaming projects for the Disney+ platform rather than theatrically-released films. A Deadpool Christmas special would probably be a safer bet than releasing an entire movie based on Wade Wilson’s holiday habits in theaters.
Deadpool 3 was one of the more hotly anticipated upcoming superhero movies in either the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the DC Universe, even before it was casually revealed that Hugh Jackman would be reprising the role of Wolverine in the movie. There is no way to know whether a Deadpool Christmas special would also include any X-Men characters, though it seems like Ryan Reynolds is very eager to get all the mutants shoehorned in there that he can.
