Vital Thrills talked to the cast and crew of the highly anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine, which will open in theaters on July 26. For an idea of the tone of this film, here is the official synopsis:
“Marvel Studios presents their most significant mistake to date—Deadpool & Wolverine. A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life. His days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. When his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit up again with an even more reluctantlier… reluctanter? Reluctantest? He must convince a reluctant Wolverine to—F**k. Synopses are so f**king stupid.”
We were also able to view the first 40 minutes of the film with a montage of scenes from later on. We’ll keep this as spoiler-free as possible so you can go in fresh. In the footage, Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is living a life as a normal guy. Things aren’t great with his old girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), though they have a cordial relationship.
His friends are all around him, but he’s left wanting. Though a series of events that involve a dance scene and a fight number combined, Deadpool finds a version of Wolverine in the multiverse that he needs to help him save his friends from a terrible fate.
There are digs at Marvel and 20th Century Fox alike, the sort of R-rated stuff you’d expect from Deadpool, and jokes about how un-Disney this all is. (Though jokes are made about how Marvel President Kevin Feige doesn’t want any cocaine references.) We also saw some clips of Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova and a few variants of our heroes, but that would reveal too much.
Feige said the trio of director Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds (who also serves as producer), and Hugh Jackman, ” … they have brought this movie to the MCU. And this movie is amazing. And what Shawn has done with this movie and what Ryan and Hugh have done bringing to the MCU, not only everything we know they can do with these characters, but the camaraderie and friendship and love that Shawn harnessed between the two of them, through the script, onto the camera, and onto the screen is remarkable.”
Levy said he got “really lucky” with the group and that Marvel excels when we don’t get what we think we will. He said, “And under this banner, you have the capacity for a ‘Ragnarok’ to sit alongside a ‘Black Panther’ and an ‘Iron Man.’ And this ability to surprise us is the MCU at its best. And we had an opportunity collectively to do the first R rated MCU movie and the first pairing of Deadpool and Wolverine. So, built into this opportunity was the chance to surprise and to do something new and unexpected.”
Reynolds joked that he’s “built a career on really having as few expectations as possible” and said that when he and Levy were filming The Adam Project, he said the only way he’d do this is with Levy writing (along with Zeb Wells, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick) and directing.
He continued, “And then Shawn just basically took his white glove off and slapped the side of my face with it like some sort of ‘20s harlot and said, ‘My glove to your damned insolent cheek, child.’ And then, for some reason, after that said yes. And we’ve been on this insane, wonderful journey ever since. And, of course, none of this came to reality until Mr. Hugh Jackman decided one day to, yeah, to levitate down from the clouds or whatever sort of heaven nest he lives in and bless us with his presence in this film.”
When asked what made Jackman want to revisit the role of Wolverine again after appearing to retire from the role with Logan, Jackman joked that it was the suit that did it. He laughed and added, “I watched ‘Deadpool’ one, three days after announcing that ‘Logan’ would be my last, and I remember thinking, ‘Oops.’ Because I could see the movie. Listen, this wasn’t new to me ever since I played Wolverine, people have been talking about Deadpool and Wolverine and their rivalry from the comic books. And then, of course, we had a sort of go at it with ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’
“But I could feel it. I could see it. It was ‘Midnight Run.’ It was ’48 Hours.’ It was ‘The Odd Couple.’ ‘Trains, Planes, Automobiles.’ It was all these great sort of matchups that I could feel. We toyed with the idea, but it was August 14th, 2022, and I don’t know why; I just knew every cell in my body was yelling at me: ‘I wanna do this movie.’ So much so that I pulled my car over from the side of the road and I rang Ryan immediately. ‘Cause I knew that they were getting close to filming. I thought they may have even been filming. And I asked him, and thankfully, he said yes.”
Reynolds said, “I’ve known Hugh for a long time. My first experience with a proper big-ass movie star was Hugh Jackman in 2008… he was the Wolverine. I mean, you know, I stepped onto that set on ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ which was during a really tough time. It was not unlike this year when we had a writer’s strike, so it was very hard to make a movie in the midst of that.
“And I watched him as a leader, as a human being, lead with kindness and class. And I remember I had a moment where I felt like I could have done a scene better. At the end of the day, everyone was kind of ready to go home. And Hugh just fired up the set, turned out — [laughs] had all the lights turned back on. Everyone was zipping their costumes back up, and he gave me one more crack at it, and I just remember thinking, ‘God, if I’m ever even orbiting anywhere near that guy’s footprint, I hope I’m something even remotely resembling his level of class and kindness and professionalism.'”
Emma Corrin said of their experience with the film, “The best, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, I think, on a set. I mean, it’s kind of been said, but Shawn leads with such generosity and such vision as well. You always feel like you’re so comfortable because he’s in such control of the set. But Shawn, you’re the most enthusiastic person I think I’ve ever met. [laughs]
“You have this, like, [laughs] energy that does not wane for a single second, and I don’t know how you do it because Shawn must have had so much in his head the entire time. There’s so much asked of you as a director and as a writer as well on a project like this, of this scale, and you didn’t feel it, like, for one second. I mean, you create an atmosphere that’s so gorgeous and welcoming, and there’s boundless creativity and opportunity to play.”
Matthew Macfadyen plays Mr. Paradox, who is associated with the Time Variance Authority (TVA), agreed. He said of the role, “I think the thing for an actor, the bottom line, the thing you dream of, is for a director to give you confidence, if nothing else, to give you confidence. And Shawn not only leads that in abundance, you know? I never felt scared to try anything or to do anything or to get it wrong. And especially on a film of this scale. It’s really liberating, and it’s wonderful.”
The press got a treat when the cast showed Peggy, the dog who plays Dogpool. Rob Delaney, who reprises the role of Peter, was running the press conference and he asked the cast and crew who Peggy would say is her favorite person ever. Then he joked about legendary actor W.C. Fields saying never to work with dogs or children. Reynolds said, “My favorite W.C. Fields quote is, ‘Yes, I’ve been to Philadelphia. I’ve spent a year there. I think it was a Sunday.’
“Which I think is one of the greatest one-liners of all time. I think Peggy quite liked me or salmon paste [which was used to make her lick someone] … Well, there is a sequence in the film where Peggy and I, well, she explores my mouth using only her leathery, leathery tongue, which honestly looks like a Slim Jim commercial with Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage snapping off a … ” The entire Deadpool & Wolverine cast laughed. Levy joked that “a lot of people are about to be obsessed.”
Feige was asked how important Deadpool and Wolverine are in the MCU and how it marked a before and after in the storyline. He said, “Well, I think every movie is important. But the most important thing is a great movie. And Shawn and Ryan and Hugh and this whole team have made a great movie. “So there’s nothing better for Cinematic Universe than a great movie coming out. The before and after, I mean, I think a lot of people talk about the R rating. Is every movie gonna be R-rated after this? Of course not.
“But I hope every movie after this embraces its tonality the way ‘Deadpool’ does and the way this team was able to do on ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’ Also, now that we have the characters from the X-Men world and the mutants that we haven’t had access to before, I think this is the beginning of that, and everything post-‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ will be the mutant era coming into the MCU.”
Reynolds wanted to add to what Feige said about the R-rating. He explained, “If I could just touch on the R-rating for just one second. Kevin had a quote that really stuck with me, which was that he said that this movie’s the most wholesome R-rated movie ever. But no, it really, I felt like that was the most pithy way of explaining the movie. That the R-rating is never exploited. It’s never really used just to use it. It really is there as a facility to tell the most authentic story about these two, I think, very iconic characters coming together onscreen for the first time in the exact right way.”
Jackman was asked about playing variants. He hesitated for a moment and joked that the people around him would tackle him if he said the wrong thing. He then revealed, “It was fantastic. I mean, I’m gonna say the highlight. We were sort of joking a bit before, but the highlight was putting on that suit, the yellow and blue suit. And it had been talked about from the very beginning, [right, Kevin?]. I mean, those conversations were there. It wasn’t like it was never mentioned. But it was at the beginning in 1999, just universally or I don’t know if universally, but I’m sure you’d disagree.”
Feige said in response, “So, there were studio execs in charge who knew that ‘The Matrix’ had been a big hit. And ‘The Matrix’ had black leather, so let’s put them in black leather.” Jackman said he didn’t know that and added, “I got it after all these years. [laughs] And then it sort of became like, I don’t know if we can make it work. I don’t know if we can. And the moment I put it on, I remember walking out there with Ryan on set, him in Deadpool, me in the yellow and blue, amongst this crew that had done hundreds of movies and seen everything. There was just a hush, and you could feel that everyone was like, going, oh, okay. This is a moment that should’ve happened 24 years ago.”
He continued, “I just can’t imagine doing it any other way. In terms of the variants, it was so cool. I was given, actually, on the very first movie, a thing which I had framed, which was a collection. Imagine trading cards, but not cut up. So, it was just a sheet of trading cards of all the different Wolverine variants. There would’ve had to have been 60 on that, maybe 50 or 60. And so, I’ve had it next to my bed in Australia, and I look at it all the time. And I just think, wow, the pirate, wow, the samurai. Like, how could you pull that off … I think of the variants … I have to say, I think Patch. There’s something about Patch that ticked a little James Bond.”
Corrin spoke about their work as Cassandra [who is the twin of Professor X, aka Charles Xavier] in the film. They said, “I think absurdity was a fun one that really piqued my interest in joining the Deadpool universe, in particular. And bring Cassandra to it, obviously with everything that we know in love about her origin story with her relationship with, you know, Charles Xavier and that. That was kind of the key to it for me because I think the term ‘villain’ is a great one, and we all know that villains have the most fun.
“But I think for me, I really needed to find a key into, like, what made her tick, find that sort of side to empathize with her. And for me, that was her relationship with her brother. And I think we, like you guys will see in this film, you know, through her interactions with Wolverine, that’s explored with obviously the history of the X-Men and everything. So, that was really fun. There was a lot of scope. It was a big sandbox. We all got to try out loads of different things. And Cassandra in particular, Shawn and I realized as we were going through the film, you know, who she would become. And that was a really fun process.”
Jenna Busch has written and spoken about movies, TV, video games, and comics all over the Internet for over 15 years, co-hosted a series with Stan Lee, appeared on multiple episodes of “Tabletop,” written comic books, and is a contributing author for the 13 books in the “PsychGeeks” series including “Star Wars Psychology.” She founded Legion of Leia and hosted the “Legion” podcast.