Ryan Reynolds Fighting Disney For Control Of Deadpool 3?
Apparently, according to the latest rumors, Ryan Reynolds and Disney are at odds over creative control for Deadpool 3's production
This article is more than 2 years old
One of the bigger questions facing the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now is how they are going to incorporate already established characters into the current franchise. And there’s no bigger question mark than what happens with Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool now that the Merc with the Mouth is set to join the MCU in the next couple of years. There have been some rumors of internal strife between Reynolds and the studio about the direction of the film and that looks like it’s still a thing. According to insider Daniel Richtman, there is a power struggle going on right now over control for the film with Reynolds at odds not with Marvel, but with Disney as a whole.
This latest rumor involving Ryan Reynolds could point to conflicting ideas around the tone and direction of Deadpool 3 which will be the first time the character took part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe festivities. It appears that some of the creative control and overall vision for the film was going to land in the very capable hands of Reynolds for this next film. And it looked like Marvel was on board with this process, maybe recognizing that what he’d been doing in the past was totally and completely working for the character. But Disney doesn’t quite see it the same way, wanting to be a bigger part of the decision-making and even production process going forward.
The conflict around Ryan Reynolds or Disney controlling the process for Deadpool 3 likely is centered on the tone for the next movie. The previous Deadpool movies were decidedly R-rated, even ranging far right on that proverbial bell curve when it came to language, sexual references, and especially violence. The franchise, in its first two iterations, was completely divergent from the typical, family-friendly comic book fare. It pushed those boundaries, allowing for a much more *adult* experience when it came to dealing with a superhero.
And this approach from Ryan Reynolds worked so well for those movies, scoring massive returns at the box office to the tune of billions (with a “b”) and also rating incredibly high on the critical scale. The Rotten Tomatoes score for the first two movies was 85% and 84% respectively. There’s no metric one could use that would be grounds for a pivot with the next film. But, and it’s a big old but, the Disney brand is about the complete opposite from the Deadpool brand in terms of all those previous stylistic things. It’s just not a Mouse House character and there could be a concern if Ryan Reynolds has his full way, the overall family-friendly brand could take a hit.
It will be interesting to see where this goes or maybe who blinks first. Previous rumors had had Marvel acquiescing to Ryan Reynolds and his style, saying the next movie wouldn’t change all that much and would maintain an R-Rating. But clearly, if this latest rumor is valid, Disney might be in a “not so fast” lane here. With nothing set in stone and Deadpool 3 still in pre-production, there are still a lot of different directions for this to take. In the end, we might get a more kid-friendly version of Deadpool and that would be a real shame.
