Deadpool was one of the biggest hits that comic book movies, and R-rated, movies have ever seen. The sequel was given a green light before the original even opened. The new script is being written and the film is being cast. So why in the world does this movie still not have a release date? You'd think Fox would have locked down that date long ago. However, according to screenwriter Rhett Reese, the reason the film has yet to receive an official release date is because everybody wants to take their time and make sure they do it right. Nobody wants to rush the project in order to hit an arbitrary date. According to Reese...
We're very close to a draft that we'll go off and shoot in a couple of months and we couldn't be more thrilled. ...We don't want to put the cart before the horse, and often times with release dates that happens. You end up racing and you end up being forced to do something you're not happy with and the great thing about Deadpool is we spent a career trying to duck other movies. 'How do we get off the release date of this or that?'
It's somewhat refreshing to see both a production team and a studio who are apparently more interested in playing the long game and getting a good product eventually than making the film fit within a certain window. Still, it's surprising. Based on Rhett Reese's comments to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool 2 is all set to start filming in just a couple of months. Once that process starts, it's not particularly difficult to do the math and figure out when the movie will be finished, so putting a date on it wouldn't be a stretch, yet it seems the plan is to wait.
Apparently, part of the reason may be that Fox now sees Deadpool as a major player in Hollywood, and thus the studio have a certain amount of power when it comes to picking a date for Deadpool 2. While Rhett Reese says that he's used to having his movies bounced around the schedule in order to avoid other, bigger, movies, he believes the roles will be reversed once Deadpool 2 is dated, saying...
I think in most cases, people are going to have to duck us.
Still, with the movie slated to go into production shortly, we can expect Deadpool 2 is set for sometime in 2018. Fox currently has three dates set aside for Marvel films next year which are March 2, June 29, and November 2. The only one of those that currently has any major competition on it is the November date, as that's when Disney's live-action Mulan is currently set to debut. At this point, the June date would seem to be the most likely if filming is set to begin in a couple of months. Depending on how much post-production work is needed, and Deadpool 2 could get away with less than most superhero movies, March is a possibility.
On the plus side, the teaser we got before Logan certainly implies that a lack of release date won't keep the merc with a mouth from teasing us right up until the movie comes out. We just want it to be good, we'll wait.
