Deadpool hits theaters tomorrow (this evening in some areas), but the Merc with the Mouth's big screen follow-up is already being planned. Earlier this week, it was reported that 20th Century Fox greenlit Deadpool 2. No details have been provided about what the sequel will be about (though Cable is rumored to appear), but if the early reviews of the first movie are any indication, then it will be most welcomed. Conversely, Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot failed to impress last year, resulting in the studio taking away Fantastic Four 2’s 2017 release date. Does that mean Deadpool 2 might take that coveted spot? Not if the writers have their way.
Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are returning to pen the sequel, but when asked by HeyUGuys whether the sequel might take Fantastic Four 2’s place on June 9, 2017, Reese said they’d like as much time to work on it as possible. As he put it:
We hope that it doesn’t take Fantastic Four’s release date because that’s awfully, awfully soon! We like to take our time, we’re lazy screenwriters. … Look, that’s entirely above our heads, but we’ll write the very best screenplay we can write if we’re fortunate enough to get that sequel, and we’ll write it as quickly as they tell us we need to write it. When they say jump, we say how high.
It sounds like these two are amenable to pumping out a script if Fox wants it posthaste, but for the sake of telling the best story possible, let’s hope that’s not the case. Wernick also mentioned that it literally took them six years to write Deadpool, though that probably had more to do with the movie languishing in development hell than their creative process. Realistically, getting Deadpool 2 out by summer 2017 (less than a year and a half away) doesn’t seem plausble, especially if Reese and Wernick aren’t far along in the writing process. 2018 seems more likely, if not 2019. Two to three-year breaks are much more common when it comes to these massive blockbusters.
Months before Fantastic Four hits theaters, Fox announced Fantastic Four 2’s release date, but after the first movie’s critical and commercial failure, the sequel was taken off the slate. The sequel hasn’t been cancelled yet, but the chances of it still being made aren’t looking good. For now, it looks like, on the superhero side of things, Fox is focused solely on the X-Men movies. In addition to Deadpool 2, Gambit, New Mutants, and Wolverine 3 are in development, along with possibly more entries in the main X-Men series. Whether any of them end up nabbing Fantastic Four 2’s old release date, we’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think? Do you want to see Deadpool 2 as soon as possible or would you rather there be a longer gap between the entries? Let us know in the comments below.
