As the man with the keys to the kingdom, Kevin Feige can pretty much do whatever he wants in regards to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and nobody’s going to argue. The Incredible Hulk was released just a few weeks after Iron Man launched the entire franchise, but when Marvel Studios struck out on their own, the movie was quietly swept under the rug, with William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross the one and only thing that ties it to the rest of the interconnected mythology.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., meanwhile, was heavily touted and marketed as a direct continuation that existed on the peripherals of the movies, as were the lineup of Netflix shows, but they too were disregarded from canon once Feige assumed control of Marvel’s TV output, with WandaVision set to mark the official small screen expansion over seven years after Joss Whedon directed the former’s pilot episode.
Nobody argues with the boss man, and we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Ben Affleck would be returning as Batman in The Flash weeks before it was confirmed – that Feige is the main holdup on Deadpool 3, because he isn’t a particularly big fan of the character and doesn’t see how he can fit into the established order of the MCU, thinking Wade Wilson is too goofy and will cause issues with the current continuity and story being told.
According to our intel, the producer believes that the introduction of a self-aware and fourth wall-breaking meta superhero poses too many narrative problems, and Feige is also said to be against handing any sort of significant creative control over to Ryan Reynolds given that he’s always called the shots. Disney are said to be pushing harder than Marvel for Deadpool 3 due to the obvious box office potential, and they certainly want the character to have a big presence in the MCU, but Feige is reportedly the major stumbling block right now in bringing the Merc with a Mouth back to our screens.
