Deadpool 2's Brianna Hildebrand Explains What Happened At The Test Screenings

Brianna Hildebrand Deadpool

Fans of Deadpool became concerned recently when reports from test screenings of Deadpool 2 claimed the movie had serious problems. Negasonic Teenage Warhead has now arrived to help everybody calm down. Brianna Hildebrand was recently asked about the reshoots for Deadpool 2 which seemed to be taking place immediately following rumors that audiences at test screenings didn't care for the upcoming sequel. According to her, the test screenings were fine, and the reshoots took place in order to add more of things the audiences liked, not change or remove things they didn't. According to Hildebrand...

No, it was nothing that had gone wrong. I think it's a common misconception too -- that people think that reshoots are to fix things that people didn't like. A lot of the time, reshoots are to add more of the things that people loved. [Filmmakers] watch their films again and are like "better fix that." I don't know how much I can say about that.

While it's certainly true that reshoots can be undertaken to fix negative criticism, Brianna Hildebrand is absolutely right that they can also be used to accentuate the positive. If there was a character or element that audiences really gravitated toward, things may change in order to give more screen time than was originally planned to that element.

It was last week when the reshoots on Deadpool 2 were confirmed via Josh Brolin amid rumors that the test screenings on the film had gone poorly. Information was sketchy, and most was second hand, as test audiences are required to stay quiet about their experiences, but the prevailing rumor was that Deadpool 2 had some problems. Of course, since we don't have any details beyond rumors, it's possible that the truth of the situation got a little lost in the translation. If it was felt that the movie needed more of something, one person could look at the lack of that something as a bad thing, while somebody else could focus on the fact that they liked that something, and just wanted to see more of it. It's possible that the characters of Cable and/or Domino turned out really well and viewers just wanted to see more of them and less of Deadpool himself.

Brianna Hildebrand told ScreenGeek that she didn't want to talk too much about reshoots because she knows people automatically assume the worst simply in bringing up the topic of reshoots, even though she says there's really nothing to worry about here. Hopefully, fans of the Merc with a Mouth can now relax a little bit. Reshoots are common practice and while they may very well have been things that audiences didn't love about the film, it doesn't mean that all hope is lost.

Deadpool 2 hits theaters May 18.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.