THR is reporting tonight that John Wick director David Leitch has stepped in to replace Tim Miller on 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool 2. If you recall, Miller departed several weeks back, after citing creative differences which included the casting of Cable. Following him out the door was composer Junkie XL, at which point it seemed like the film may be in trouble.
Leitch’s name cropped up around then as a potential candidate for the directing gig and now it appears as if the studio has made it official. There’s no word yet on who might replace Junkie XL, but with a talented filmmaker now behind the camera, Fox shouldn’t have any trouble pulling the rest of the project together. The only question that remains is, will Leitch be able to flex his creative muscles on the sequel, or will he be a mere puppet for Ryan Reynolds?
From everything we’ve heard so far, it seems as if the actor wants a large degree of control over Deadpool 2, which led to him butting heads with Miller over several issues. As such, we’re being led to believe that the John Wick director might not really be pulling too many strings once shooting gets underway. Especially since he’s still pretty fresh when it comes to directing and isn’t a big name.
If that does turn out to be the case, and Leitch isn’t allowed to have much, if any control, over Deadpool 2, it’d be a great shame. Those who’ve seen John Wick will know full well that he’s highly capable of directing slick fight scenes and stylish action, and we’d love to see him infuse some of that into this sequel. Whether or not he’ll be able to remains to be seen, but we should know more soon as the film gets ready to head into production.
Last we heard, Deadpool 2 was looking to land a new release date due to the setback of Miller leaving. With Leitch now on board though, and plans already in motion for a third outing, we’re hopeful that Fox will lock something down sooner rather than later.