The recent Disney Investor Day was more like a San Diego Comic-Con panel than a sales pitch designed to keep people funnelling their money directly into the Mouse House coffers, with an absolute mountain of projects announced from the biggest brands at the company’s disposal including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars and Pixar, along with a huge number of live-action and animated efforts coming from Walt Disney Studios.
Despite some major Star Wars reveals, though, including Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and confirmation of Ahsoka, Rangers of the New Republic and Acolyte, not to mention Hayden Christensen’s return as Anakin Skywalker in Obi-Wan Kenobi, the MCU still managed to blow a galaxy far, far away out of the water when it came to both the scale and sheer volume of new content in the works.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are now set for 2022 and 2023 respectively, while the intergalactic band of misfits are also getting a holiday special and an animated spinoff for Baby Groot. Furthermore, the Disney Plus roster swelled massively with the additions of Secret Invasion, Ironheart and Armor Wars. In fact, only one upcoming MCU effort wasn’t mentioned by name at all, and it was Deadpool 3.
We know the writing process is in full swing after the Molyneux sisters were tasked with cracking the script, but that’s about it so far. Deadpool 3 is much further along the development process than Fantastic Four, too, but the latter still got a splashy announcement and a confirmed director, which has led some to speculate that the R-rated superhero adventure could be a 20th Century Studios production existing outside of the MCU.
As ScreenRant explains:
In December 2019, Ryan Reynolds confirmed that Deadpool 3 was in development at Marvel Studios, but it wasn’t until November 2020 where the hiring of Bob’s Burgers writers Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin confirmed to fans that a third Deadpool movie is really happening. Although some might argue that Deadpool 3 is still in early development and doesn’t have a projected release date, the same happens with Fantastic Four, so the reason for Wade Wilson’s third movie not to be included in Disney’s announcements is that the studio is keeping him away from the MCU for a little longer. Although Bob Iger said in March 2019 that Deadpool, along with other Marvel properties living at Fox, would be integrated with the MCU, this universe might not be ready for him and his sense of humor yet
That would allow Disney to distance themselves from the Merc with a Mouth’s love of foul language and grisly violence, but as they still own the former Fox outfit, there’s no legal red tape stopping them from drafting Ryan Reynolds in for a crossover or two.
