Disney will soon own the Fox superhero IPs, the most prominent of which is the X-Men franchise. This means that at some point in the next few years, the cinematic universe begun in Bryan Singer’s X-Men way back in 2000 will come to an end and we’ll see an all-new incarnation of them turning up in the MCU.
Arguably, the mainstream X-Universe films have run their course: X-Men: Apocalypse simply wasn’t very good, I haven’t heard anything positive about Dark Phoenix and Logan gave Wolverine as moving an end as you can get. But there’s one corner of Fox’s X-Universe that’s healthier than ever: Deadpool.
Ryan Reynolds’ take on the Rob Liefeld character is an audience favorite and has repeatedly broken box office records for R-rated movies. But could DP ever fit into the Disney-run MCU? It’s about as difficult to imagine anyone other than Reynolds in the role as it is to imagine the character suddenly becoming family friendly, and that leaves Deadpool in an awkward position, but one which his creator is confident he’ll be able to escape from.
Liefeld spoke at the Wizard World Comic Con in Austin this weekend and discussed the Merc with a Mouth’s future after the Disney acquisition, saying:
“This is my theory, my opinion. Did you guys see when Josh (Brolin) came out at D23? They introduced him as Thanos. He came out and he looked like Cable and the internet blew up. ‘Josh Brolin as Cable just came out on stage!’ That was my entire Twitter feed. And you saw Josh, looking like Cable and he even had a cut across his eye because they were filming Deadpool at the time, and I was like, ‘Oh look. Cable is on screen promoting Thanos.’ And that was the first time they blended together on screen.
Imagine whatever Disney function that they bring out everybody, Downey Jr. Evans, all of the people you’ve already seen, Pratt. And then Ryan Reynolds walks on stage. I think the world will explode because that’s all people want, is for him to take the piss out of everybody. And here’s the thing, my only fear is that they’re never gonna make another Deadpool. They’re just gonna run around Marvel movies making fun of everybody.”
I’m with Liefeld on this. Disney have already indicated that they’re happy to consider R-rated movies in the MCU’s future (their TV shows frequently grapple with issues that the films wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole), and Deadpool’s precisely the kind of character that could transition between cinematic universes without anyone raising an eyebrow. Plus, it’d give diehard fans of the existing X-Universe a message that what’s come before isn’t being erased and is being respected.
Liefeld concluded by confidently saying the following:
“Ryan is going to have a long and glorious career in the Marvel universe. And I hope Spider-Man is somehow there, I know that’s a Sony thing, but I just think, once he’s sitting there with Downey Jr., and Chris Evans or Chris Pratt, myself? I won’t know what to do with myself.”
With Deadpool 2 being as good as it was, and with X-Force being hurried through production to make it out before the deal closes, I, for one, hope we can look forward to a long future of Ryan Reynolds busting right through the fourth wall.
