Deadpool fans were stunned this past weekend to learn that director Tim Miller would no longer be helming the Merc with the Mouth's upcoming sequel. While Ryan Reynolds and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are fortunately still attached, Miller played an integral role in the first movie both during production and many of its years in development hell, so his absence will be felt. The original report attributed his departure to "creative differences," and one of those differences was apparently that Miller disagreed with the other creative minds on how big a movie Deadpool 2 should be.
According to The Wrap, Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wanted to keep Deadpool 2 as a "scrappy, raunchy and inexpensive movie." In other words, they wanted to keep the tone and spirit of the first movie intact and not increase the budget significantly. Tim Miller, on the other hand, supposedly wanted a more "stylish take" in the vein of more traditional superhero movies. To do that would have meant tripling the first movie's $58 million budget. In the end, Miller didn't get his wish. The report also mentioned that Miller and Reynolds were at odds with each other, although accounts differ on whether 20th Century Fox executives had to get involved to manage the relationships in the months before Deadpool's release or after.
As far as the two different visions go, that's not an unimaginable predicament. Occasionally two individuals will clash because they have conflicting ideas on how a blockbuster should be made. The problem is that Tim Miller's supposed idea for Deadpool 2 contrasts his previous comments. Back in March at the Silicon Valley Comic-Con, he explicitly said that Deadpool 2 didn't need to be a "bigger" movie and pointed out that fans of the first movie didn't like it because it had big effects. Now, it's possible that Miller wasn't being entirely truthful when he spoke to the crowd, or maybe in the seven months since then, he changed his mind on how to approach Deadpool 2. Still, for him to do a complete 180 is puzzling, so for now, we're questioning whether this new information is entirely correct.
Still, even if this particular disagreement never happened, it sounds like there were plenty of other issues between Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds over Deadpool 2's direction. The Wrap also reported over the weekend that the two men argued about who should play Cable, one of the major new players being introduced. Miller reportedly wanted Kyle Chandler for the role, while Reynolds wanted someone who looked closer to the character from the comics. Whatever happened behind the scenes, Miller is gone now, and Reynolds and 20th Century Fox need to find his Deadpool 2 successor, be it Quentin Tarantino or someone else.
Deadpool 2 hasn't been assigned a release date yet, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for that update, as well as all the most relevant details surrounding the sequel as they come in.
