Disney and Marvel Studios may be in control of the rights to Deadpool having acquired them as part of their protracted takeover of Fox, but the Merc with a Mouth’s creator Rob Liefeld hasn’t been shy in letting it be known what he thinks of the family-friendly studio being in charge of his most famous comic book character.
After Disney CEO Bob Iger added Deadpool to his Twitter header, Liefeld responded in kind by posting an image of Wade Wilson brandishing the severed head of Mickey Mouse. The outspoken writer and artist has also made it clear that he doesn’t have much faith in the Mouse House’s ability to handle Deadpool 3, even going as far as to claim they have no interest in making the movie at all.
The 52 year-old has said that he thinks the best option for getting the best of the foul-mouthed assassin is to hand complete creative control over to Ryan Reynolds, although he also admitted that he’d be fine if Deadpool never joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe at all, because he gets paid either way.
Liefeld’s latest comments certainly make it sound like money is first and foremost on his mind, after he took shots at Disney delaying all of their big budget blockbusters that were initially set to release this summer, and said the studio should just give up on the idea of more Deadpool movies and focus on video games and animated projects instead.
“I’m just going to tell you right now. Screw movies. Screw this whole Deadpool movie talk, okay? 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.’ 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?”
There’s a reason why Rob Liefeld is one of the most controversial names in the comic book community, and it isn’t just his inability to draw feet. No stranger to making potentially inflammatory comments, Liefeld’s latest outburst largely seems to be based on the fact that Disney aren’t yet monetizing Deadpool to his satisfaction. Though you can’t exactly blame them, as the MCU and Ryan Reynolds already have more than enough on their respective plates to keep them occupied until the third installment finally gets the go-ahead.
