There are a handful of reasons why I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine. For starters, all of the trailers and marketing material have been home runs, from TV spots that revel in Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s chemistry to the lewd Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket, which you knew was going to be a hit. If this sequel sticks its landing, it has the potential to be discussed as one of the best Marvel movies ever made. And now that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is starting to promote the movie, he’s zeroing in on something more important than the foul language, and his comments have me very excited.
Ahead of Marvel’s return to San Diego Comic-Con at the end of this month, Kevin Feige spoke with Deadline about the understood edginess found in Deadpool & Wolverine, the first official R-rated MCU movie (though the previous two Deadpool movies earned their R ratings). But it was his comments regarding the finished movie that has been shifting my expectations. And raising them. Feige said of Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine:
Hugh and Ryan have talked about this, and I think people can tell from the trailer and from the press tour so far, yes, it’s R-rated, yes there’s some language and blood, but the film is incredibly emotional. I keep calling it the most wholesome R-rated film that anybody can ever see. It really is a celebration of friendship and family and of found family. I don’t want to overdo it, but for all the R-rated raunchiness that gets attention, when people see the movie, it’s going to be about how heartfelt it is; in my opinion much more than the first two Deadpool films. That’s what I’m really excited about, once people get past the ‘F’ words and the R-rating, to see how sweet it is.
This doesn’t really surprise me. Thanks to Ryan Reynolds, the first two Deadpool movies were heavily rooted in Wade Wilson’s relationship with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). It was his desire to avenge her that drove Deadpool through the plot of Deadpool 2, and led to this this hilarious mid-credits sequence. “We’re definitely naming our kid Cher!”
As we reported from the Disney/Marvel panel at CinemaCon, though, Deadpool & Wolverine begins with Wade and Vanessa separated. She’s dating someone else, but we aren’t told why. The trailers do make it seem like Wade needs Logan’s help to save the people he cares for most. But it’s not just Vanessa anymore. It’s the entire Deadpool cast.
We don’t have that much longer to wait. Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26, and is even rumored to begin the mutant agenda in the MCU. We shall see how this movie starts to move the Multiversal Saga forward when it gets here!
