Naturally — since Deadpool made his Disney debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Deadpool & Wolverine — there was bound to be plenty of jabs thrown in the direction of the big mouse, and oh there was. However, one joke didn’t make the cut and we can now see why.
After two successful outings produced by Fox, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool was folded into the MCU this year with another R-rated action comedy, but this time he was also joined by a Marvel veteran, Wolverine, played once again by Hugh Jackman. Even though it was connected to the other more kid-friendly MCU movies, Deadpool & Wolverine really had few restraints when it came to comedy.
Now we have had a chance to see a portion of the original script courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, it is clear that some of the punches were pulled, especially when it came time to deal with Mickey Mouse himself. Here’s the joke that Disney felt was too much for the MCU.
During the scene where Channing Tatum’s Gambit makes his first appearance, Deadpool is informed that Magneto is dead to which he replies, “F**k! What we can’t even afford one more X-Man? Disney is so cheap. I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c*** in my throat.”
If you’ve seen the movie, then you’ll be aware that this line was changed, and while it wasn’t altered entirely, the Disney joke we did get was slightly less crude, but still just as gleefully graphic (as is par for the Deadpool course). “F**k, now Disney gets cheap? It’s like Pinocchio jammed his face in my a** and started lying like crazy.”
Seeing this script shows that the filmmakers behind this sequel were still happy to take all of the shots they needed too despite being under the Disney umbrella, which was something that many longtime Deadpool fans feared would become an issue. Let’s get real, nobody wants a PG-13 Deadpool movie, and fortunately, the executives at Marvel Studios feel the same way, at least to a certain extent.
Shawn Levy, the sequel’s director, mentioned in an interview after the release of the movie that there was just one line that Disney asked them to change, and if we had to put any money on it then we’d guess that it was this one.
“We have made a pact, Ryan and I,” Levy told Entertainment Weekly. “To go to our grave with that line, but I will say that it was replaced with an equally dirty line of dialogue about Pinocchio shoving his face up Deadpool’s a** and starting to lie like crazy. I was like, ‘Ryan, that’s your replacement line in response to, ‘Can we clean it up?’ That’s Ryan Reynolds for you, audacious to the very edge.”
Now that Deadpool & Wolverine is here and has proven that MCU movies can shatter records despite being for adult audiences, it would seem the gates are open to more R-rated projects for the studio in the future, and we couldn’t be more happy about that.
However, we don’t expect any of these other films to be taking shots as wild as Deadpool anytime soon, especially when they’re aimed at Disney itself. He may be small, but the forces behind Mickey can pack a powerful punch.