After a less-than-pleasing turn as Green Lantern in 2011, Ryan Reynolds has finally found his superhero calling as Deadpool…the real deal, not the pale imitation from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The actor has said on many occasions that the Merc with a Mouth is the only character he wants to play anymore, and if early Deadpool reviews are any indication, he’ll get more opportunities to do so. However, beyond more Deadpool adventures, there’s another faction of the X-Men universe that Reynolds would also like to finally see on the big screen: X-Force.
While discussing Deadpool with FILMSTARTS, Reynolds mentioned how there’s more aspects of the X-Men mythology that can be added to the movies, and X-Force is high on his wish list. He explained:
There’s so much material to mine in just the X-Men universe … In the future, if we’re doing a bunch more Deadpool movies, we’re really going to explore the X-Men a lot. We’ll see. And maybe X-Force — X-Force is my priority. I really want to get that in.
In 2013, it was announced that Jeff Wadlow had been hired to write and direct an X-Force movie, but since then there’s barely been any news on its development, likely meaning it’s either been scrapped or put in suspended animation. This is the latest opportunity Reynolds has taken to champion a cinematic X-Force, and earlier this month he said that like Deadpool, the mutant strike force’s movie should also be rated R, allowing for more gore and cursing then what the PG-13 X-Men entries can offer. Although concept art from a few months back didn’t show Deadpool being part of the team, it would be easy enough to add him to the lineup. That would also let Ryan Reynolds exchange the red-and-black duds for the gray and black uniform Wade Wilson occasionally wears while working with the team.
Oddly enough, the key to realizing the cinematic X-Force may not rest just in Deadpool’s hands, but also in the team’s leader: Cable. Deadpool director Tim Miller has said several times that he would like to include Cable in Deadpool 2, but on top of that, there’s also a New Mutants movie on the way, which was another team that Cable led in the comics. With a little crossover magic, Cable could lay the groundwork for X-Force over those two movies, eventually leading to the team being formed perhaps near the end of the decade or sometime in the 2020s in their own adventure.
You can watch hear Reynolds’ full comments about X-Force and Deadpool with Filmstarts in the video below.
Deadpool hits theaters this Friday (or Thursday evening in some areas), and if it’s as successful as the hype indicates, then maybe Ryan Reynolds can use that as leverage to convince 20th Century Fox to finally bring the X-Force to theaters.
