Now that Deadpool has finally premiered in cinemas, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies have become a truly interconnected cinematic universe. The future looks bright for this franchise, as properties like Deadpool and New Mutants will soon begin to occupy cinemas with the same frequency as the standard X-Men films. However, getting a character like Deadpool to cross over with Charles Xavier and his students is not something Fox should do lightly. Bryan Singer understands that fans want to see Deadpool in his X-Men films, but also urges caution in attempting such a crossover event.
Speaking with Variety during a press event in London to promote X-Men: Apocalypse, Bryan Singer explained why he has a certain level of hesitation towards bringing Wade Wilson to the main X-Men continuity:
If you take a character as irreverent and meta as Deadpool and connect him to something as grounded and serious as X-Men, you have to do it carefully and gently. When you drop them all in together it can be a disaster. That has to be done delicately, but there’s plenty of room to do it.
So it seems that Bryan Singer would want to tread very carefully in a situation like this. The X-Men movies tend to take themselves very seriously, while Deadpool is pretty much the antithesis of that idea. He’s not necessarily ruling out the idea of such a crossover ever taking place; he even goes on to suggest X-Force as the best opportunity to do so, but he’s careful to note that it could end poorly for all characters if not handled with care.
This one is a tough nut to crack, primarily when we consider the fact that Deadpool and the X-Men already successfully crossed over during the events of Deadpool. Sure, he may have only interacted with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, but they still very much felt like genuine X-Men. His vulgarity and violence never compromised them as characters, and his willingness to break the fourth wall just made him seem like a psycho talking to himself.
The trick here seems to lie in the fact that the X-Men can come over Deadpool’s more ridiculous and R-rated side of the Fox mutant universe, but it becomes somewhat more difficult to put him into an X-Men movie. With so much about his character predicated upon being able to cut loose, it would become a problem if they had to tone him down for a traditionally PG-13 franchise. That being said, numerous comics and cartoons have found ways to censor Deadpool over the years by simply turning it into yet another fourth wall break, so creativity is key here.
Deadpool’s very existence proves that fans will eventually get what they want. Wade Wilson will very likely show up in the main X-Men movies at some point; it’s simply a matter of whether or not they get it right. As of right now, X-Men: Apocalypse takes place in 1983, so Deadpool is still a kid in this timeline and won't show up just yet. Be sure to check out Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men movie when it hits theaters on May 27.
