If you know who Davis Love III is and you also enjoy watching R-rated superhero movies then congratulations, you’re the target demographic for Deadpool 2 writer Rhett Reese.
For those unfamiliar with the name, Love’s a professional golfer who’s won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 PGA Championship. He’s kind of a big deal, at least if you follow these sorts of things. If so, then you might be saddened to learn that a reference to the World Golf Hall of Fame inductee almost made the Merc with a Mouth’s latest film, but was eventually cut after being deemed too obscure.
On the commentary track for the Deadpool 2 home video release, Reese discusses the joke with co-writers Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds, which was written as an exchange between Wade Wilson and the lovably ordinary Peter.
“WERNICK: But the pop culture reference we couldn’t get over the plate, that Rhett Reese still bemoans…
REESE: I wanted to do a Davis Love III [joke].
REYNOLDS: You got it into some of the promo stuff, though.”
This isn’t the first time that Reese has gone on record standing by his golfer joke. In an interview earlier this year, for instance, the writer also shared his thoughts on the matter, explaining to Uproxx that “[Deadpool] was talking about Peter and says, ‘You’ve done more for Dockers than anyone since Davis Love III.”
While Wernick expressed his concern that “nine-tenths of people don’t know who David Love III is,” Reese claims it was Reynolds who prevented the line from making the cut.
“I tried to make that argument to Ryan Reynolds over the Davis Love III joke but he just wouldn’t go for it,” Reese said. “He just wouldn’t put that joke in.”
In a film whose pop culture references range from just about every current superhero franchise to the 1983 musical Barbra Streisand Yentl, it’s doubtful that a Davis Love III reference would’ve seemed too out of place. Still, for the sake of keeping the pace up, it’s understandable that Reynolds would want to minimize the number of throwaway gags that could be lost on a good portion of their Marvel-loving audience.
That being said, if you’d like to see more moments that didn’t make the theatrical release, you might want to check out the Deadpool 2: The Super Duper Cut, which comes to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD from August 21st and packs an extra 15 minutes of footage.