Original X-Force Director Jeff Wadlow Explains Why His Film Never Happened

Regardless of how family-friendly your next trip to the local multiplex needs to be, Marvel has got you covered. By the end of next month, the House of Ideas will have successfully introduced three variants of a superhero supergroup to the big screen – the Avengers (2012), the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and X-Force (2018). Each with a varying degree of family-friendly-ness, the latter and least of which is brought to you courtesy of Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed mutant, Deadpool.

That’s right, the Merc with a Mouth is slated to return with his particular brand of childish vulgarity and patently meta dialogue next month, and he’s bringing some friends along for the ride. Having gotten the regenerative superhuman in deep doo-doo with the Princess of Themyscira, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), for stealing her look recently, the troublemaking X-Force is scheduled to impart the mayhem on May 18th. As it turns out, though, we almost got a flick spotlighting the misfit supergroup a lot sooner.

According to screenwriter Jeff Wadlow, 20th Century Fox opted for Wade Wilson’s first solo outing over an X-Force movie, efficiently forestalling the clique’s cinematic debut.

“I wrote a draft and they really liked it. They just reached a critical moment, where they were deciding whether they were going to make Deadpool or X-Force. I’ve always loved Deadpool and I tried to rehabilitate him in my X-Force movie because, like the rest of the fans, I felt like they totally screwed it up in X-Men: Origins. I had actually been talking to Ryan Reynolds about playing him in my X-Force movie, but my X-Force movie was much more focused on Cable and the New Mutants becoming this paramilitary unit. So, Fox was trying to decide whether they going to do the Deadpool solo movie or my X-Force movie.

Continuing on, he said:

Fortunately, they picked the Deadpool solo movie because it’s great. Fortunately for the world, I should say, but unfortunately for me. But, I have no complaints about the process. I’m a huge fan of Ryan’s and I loved the Deadpool solo movie. I’m super excited for Deadpool 2. It’s a little bit of a bummer, but that’s life in the big leagues.”

First announced in 2013, the X-Force movie pegged Kick-Ass 2 director and scribe Jeff Wadlow to pen the film’s script. However, in the summer of 2014, the Deadpool test footage leaked and the rest, as they say, is history. Opening to critical and financial success, Ryan Reynolds’ passion project earned $783 million worldwide with a budget of only $58 million.

An X-Force movie is still in the works, of course, with The Cabin in the Woods’ Drew Goddard attached to write and direct. Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds, and X-Men universe stalwart Lauren Shuler Donner will produce, and though it’s still early, early days for the project, we’re certainly excited to see what form it eventually takes.