Alternate Once Upon A Deadpool Scene Suggests X-Force Is Cancelled

Following in the footsteps of The Avengers and DC’s ill-fated Justice League movie, 20th Century Fox and director Drew Goddard are plotting a superhero ensemble movie of their own in X-Force.

Starring Ryan Reynolds and most, if not all of his Deadpool alumni – namely Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz – the mash-up was supposed to go before the cameras late last year, before rumors of its cancellation began to emerge. Suffice it to say, the project is no longer a sure thing, and as part of the home video release for Once Upon a Deadpool (h/t ComicBook.com), Reynolds includes a tongue-in-cheek joke claiming that the X-Force movie was nothing more than a ruse to keep Josh Brolin at Fox.

Here’s the exchange:

Wade: PETER!

Peter: WOO HOO – X-Force!

Wade: Peter! Walk…away! Just walk away.

And continued:

Peter: But, we’re X-Force.

Wade: Nope. We’re not. X-Force is just a marketing tool designed by Fox executives to keep Josh Brolin employed. It doesn’t exist.

Peter: Well, this has been pretty scary. And I need to feed my cats.

Wade: Go home, sugar bear. Go home.

Peter: Okay, will you give Domino my email?

Given this is a direct quote from the Merc With a Mouth, there’s a very good chance that Reynolds is simply being flippant when he says that the X-Force movie is (was?) nothing more than a marketing ploy. Besides, we’ve caught wind that Brolin signed a multi-picture deal when he agreed to play the time-traveling Nathan Summers, so even if X-Force winds up trapped in the bowels of development hell, there may still be hope for Cable and Co. after all.

Once Upon a Deadpool, meanwhile, is now available across all the usual platforms, so get it while it’s hot.