In the two years since Deadpool 2 was released, it seems the entire world has changed out of all recognition. Hollywood, too. The biggest change in Tinseltown is that Marvel owner Disney also now owns 20th Century Fox, which means the Merc with a Mouth can finally hang out with his playmates in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just as he does in the comics. Marvel president Kevin Feige has made it clear that this will happen, and that Deadpool’s R-rated tone will be carried over to the MCU.
The problem is, there’s still no sign of when Deadpool 3 is going to happen. It is not listed as part of Marvel’s Phase 4, which is currently set to last until at least March 2022. That means there will probably be at least a four-year gap between Deadpools 2 and 3 – if the latter happens at all.
This week the mutant superhero’s creator, Rob Liefeld, openly questioned if Marvel will ever get round to making a third movie. “You know what? There may not be another Deadpool, and I’m fine [with that],” he told Collider. “Because I have to live with the fact that I had two amazing experiences, two movies I’m extremely proud of, I love knowing everybody on those movies. I love Ryan, Josh [Brolin], Zazie [Beets], David [Leitch], Tim Miller. All of them.
“The work they did was fantabulous, those movies are here to stand the test of time. You know, but in the world we live in, nothing is guaranteed. And it takes a lot to make movies. And post-quarantine, it’s weird.”
So what could be holding Marvel back? As Liefeld points out, there is a great deal of uncertainty around movie-making, post-Covid-19. And yet Disney seems uniquely positioned to ride things out, with its streaming service Disney+ in place to take content that can’t be shown in cinemas.
The worry is that Deadpool is not suited to the way Marvel does things. Star Ryan Reynolds had an unusual degree of control over the direction of the Fox movies, particularly Deadpool 2. Reports suggest the studio was contractually obliged to kowtow to its star over creative decisions, a situation that led to the departure of the first film’s director, Tim Miller, when it turned out that he and Reynolds didn’t see eye to eye.
It’s not clear whether Reynolds will retain such control, but it’s impossible to imagine Feige signing a contract that gave an actor such power over the future of a franchise. Marvel is the ultimate producer-led studio, described by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins as an organisation that places its directors “under control”. Jenkins, who walked away from Thor: The Dark World in 2013 because she felt she could not save a film with such a poor script, told French magazine Premiere: “They want full control over their movies … It shows immediately if a director cannot impose his/her vision. When this is the case, I get the impression that these people are doing a different job than me.”
Feige’s dominance over creative decisions is the reason why the MCU has been able to deliver more than a score of interlinked episodes, largely directed by different film-makers, without ever hitting any tonal snags. When it does appear that a director might try to bring iconoclastic ideas to the table – remember the Edgar Wright/Ant-Man saga? – Feige has little hesitation in bringing in somebody more willing to toe the line.
So we have to wonder if the studio president really meant quite what he said when he told Variety in April 2019: “There’s no question that Deadpool is working, so why would we change it?” If Marvel isn’t taking its sweet time to intelligently blend the potty-mouthed mutant into its wider universe of stories, then why isn’t Deadpool 3 already on the studio’s slate?
