Over half a decade after he was unfaithfully depicted in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds’ incarnation of Wade Wilson finally got the cinematic treatment he deserved with 2016’s Deadpool and 2018’s Deadpool 2. While there are plans to make Deadpool 3, Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox has complicated its development, and if you ask Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, he thinks any future movies starring The Merc with the Mouth should be scrapped entirely.
During a recent interview, Rob Liefeld was asked if Deadpool could lead another video game, having previously done so in 2013. He responded:
Why wouldn't they? I'm just going to tell you right now: screw movies. Screw this whole Deadpool movie talk, OK? ... Here’s what I would say. 'Hey Disney, Hi. It’s Rob. You paid 70 billion dollars for Fox. OK? You paid 70 billion dollars. You can't run your Disney parks, which are 50% of your overall earnings, they have been shut down for 5 months. You have no way to get your 3 billion dollars' worth of movies to the theaters. No Mulan, no Black Widow, no Eternals.'
It’s no secret that the current health crisis has hit the entertainment industry hard, including Disney. Not only were its theme parks closed down for several months, with some of those locations still shuttered, the Mouse House also had to delay many of its movies, including Mulan going from a March to August release (assuming that holds), and Black Widow’s move from May to November resulting in a drastic MCU scheduling shift. As Rob Liefeld sees it, because of all these complications, it’s not worth dedicating more time and energy into getting Deadpool 3 off the ground.
Continuing in his interview with IGN, Rob Liefeld posited that Disney is better off focusing its Deadpool-related efforts on the animation realm, be that with a video game or a TV series. In his words:
Animators can work from home. Digital artists can work from home. [...] Deadpool’s kind of popular. Deadpool cartoons, Deadpool video games – of course they should be making them. Iger, whoever is running the ship over there, what are you doing to get a return on your 70 billion dollars? [...] Of course they should be making more Deadpool video games, of course they should be making a Deadpool cartoon. What the hell?
Rob Liefeld, who co-created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza, hasn’t minced words lately regarding his feelings about Deadpool’s cinematic future. Back in May, he claimed that there was no movement on Deadpool 3, and earlier this month, he said he’d be okay with another Deadpool movie never being made since he’s already had “two amazing experiences” on that front. When combined with how the pandemic has affected the world, Liefeld is comfortable with Deadpool’s future media endeavors being animated since those creative efforts are easier to pull off during social isolation.
Deadpool 3 hasn’t been officially been given the green light over at Marvel Studios, but Ryan Reynolds did say last December that the threequel was in development. While the X-Men property as a whole is expected to be rebooted to fit within the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, given Wade Wilson’s fourth wall-breaking nature, it should be easy enough to bring him into this franchise, though whether his shenanigans will continue to be framed through an R-rated lens or will now happen within PG-13 territory (like every other MCU movie) remains to be seen.
There was also an X-Force movie in development before the Disney/Fox merger, and though it’s unclear if that project could still happen, Liefeld is definitely down for Josh Brolin’s Cable to get his own film series. As far as Deadpool in animation goes, while there hasn’t been any talk about a new video game lately, there was once a TV series in the works from Donald and Stephen Glover for FXX, but it ended up being scrapped due to creative differences.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news concerning Deadpool on film and TV, and look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what the MCU has coming up in Phase 4 and beyond.
