The idea behind Once Upon A Deadpool seems mildly insane on its face. Let's take Deadpool 2, edit out all the material that makes it an R-rated film so that it can achieve a PG-13 rating, then add a framing device where Deadpool tells the story to an adult Fred Savage a la The Princess Bride. How does anybody even have an idea like that? Well, it turns out that somebody had the idea before Deadpool 2 ever came out. A writer and artist recently pointed out that he suggested exactly such an idea last year.
Michael Vincent Bramley posted the idea of using The Princess Bride framing device, complete with an adult Fred Savage, last December when the first rumors of Disney buying Fox began to circulate. At the time, while the idea of Disney getting a hold of some of its Fox licensed IP was an exciting idea for many, the one exception was Deadpool. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a pretty strictly PG-13 world, as so much of Disney's material is. That could have theoretically meant an end to R-rated Deadpool movies if Disney was in charge and Bramley thought this idea would work for making PG-13 versions of future Deadpool movies for Disney.
However, before Disney even takes ownership of Fox, and by association, Deadpool, exactly that idea has become a reality. Instead of a future sequel, Once Upon a Deadpool is a recut version of Deadpool 2 complete with kidnapped Fred Savage in a Chicago Bears jersey.
On first glance, this looks like the idea sent directly to Ryan Reynolds on Twitter may have been stolen by somebody without the original source being given any credit or compensation. The idea is certainly floated by some on Twitter, including Michael Vincent Bramley himself. However, Bramley has apparently had the opportunity to speak directly with Ryan Reynolds on the topic, and it doesn't appear that any theft has actually taken place.
One assumes that Ryan Reynolds gets a lot of stuff sent to him via Twitter, so it's entirely possible he never actually saw the tweet in question. That seems to be what the actor told Bramley. It's also not entirely insane to believe that two people had the same idea independently. It's clearly happened before. Hell, if calculus can be invented by two people independently, then a movie plot can certainly be devised separately.
It doesn't look like anybody was planning to sue anybody over this issue either way, but it looks like everything was on the up and up regardless. Now everybody can go check out Once Upon A Deadpool with a clear conscience.
