At long last, this weekend Deadpool slices and dices his way into theaters, bringing to an end our long national nightmare of not having a Deadpool movie. The film, directed by Tim Miller and starring Ryan Reynolds, is shaking up the superhero status quo with the fourth-wall breaking, foul-mouthed, ultraviolent story of how Wade Wilson went from murderous mercenary with a heart of gold to murderous mercenary with a heart of gold, a chip on his shoulder, and one hell of a healing factor.
Much like Wade Wilson himself, this movie refused to die. For Reynolds, it has been an eleven-year-long journey to take the film from concept to completion (including speed bumps like the truly abominable X-Men Origins: Wolverine). But, as Reynolds will be the first to admit, this film would not exist without the fans. After test footage of the film leaked at Comic-Con in 2014, fans took to the internet to sing the film’s praises and let studios know that there is, in fact, an audience out there for meta maniac like Deadpool. In order to get it made the way they wanted — with a hard R rating — Miller and Reynolds had to sacrifice a larger budget to maintain creative control. The result is a truly adult Marvel movie (albeit one with a decidedly juvenile sense of humor), the likes of which we haven’t seen before. And now, after having seen the film, I can say that it was well worth the wait.
In celebration of Deadpool‘s impending release, I caught up with stars Ryan Reynolds and T.J. Miller at Sister Margaret’s School for Wayward Girls — which was, in reality, a bar in San Francisco dolled up to look like the one from the movie. While we threw darts at Wolverine’s face, they told me in detail what the audience should expect from an R-rated Marvel movie. Then I asked them to describe my face in the same manner that Weasel (T.J. Miller) does to Wade Wilson after he gets an unfortunate makeover from the Weapon X program. Spoiler alert: it’s quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my face.
For your reference:
Are you excited for Deadpool? What other Marvel movies would you like to see with an R rating? Let us know in the comments below.
Deadpool opens on February 12, 2016. You can read our review right here.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
Want to learn more? Here’s Deadpool’s origin explained:
