It was pretty surprising – for a number of reasons – when Fox revealed that they were planning to release a PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2 just in time for Christmas. As you surely know by now, we’re talking about Once Upon a Deadpool. Hopes were high though that it would offer something unique, despite just being more or less a rehash of the aforementioned sequel, as after all, Ryan Reynolds has never let us down with the character.
Unfortunately, though, what we got in theaters was rather underwhelming and after receiving poor reviews, it ended up taking in a measly $6 million at the domestic box office. Now, that’s not the end of the world when you remember that this is a recut of an already successful movie, but still, it’s hardly anything to write home about.
Nevertheless, it seems that this, combined with the film’s recent release in China has led Deadpool 2 to a very impressive $784 million at the worldwide box office, which means it’s now beaten out its predecessor (the first movie made $783 million) and is the highest grossing X-Men film of all-time.
Clearly, then, the Merc with a Mouth has a bright future ahead of him, but it remains to be seen just what that’ll involve. After all, with the Disney/Fox merger about to go through, many are worried that Wade Wilson’s R-rated outings won’t be able to remain the same under the family-friendly Disney banner. Even Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld has commiserated the death of the X-Force film in response to a recent report saying that it’s probably not going to happen anymore under Fox.
All in all, the situation around both X-Force and Deadpool 3 still feels pretty uncertain at the moment, but with any luck, we’ll get a little more clarification once the deal finalizes in a couple of months’ time.