Just yesterday, 20th Century Fox confirmed that everyone’s favourite quick-witted mercenary would leap onto the silver screen at long last, with a Deadpool feature film finally pegged to release in 2016.
The announcement was essentially made possible following the release of Blur Studio’s excellent test footage, which had Ryan Reynolds — who has been attached to the project since his appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine — as the wisecracking lead. And, shortly after the green light yesterday, Reynolds spoke about the fans with admiration, which he believes are the driving force behind the big screen rendition.
“The movie has been in a state of limbo for a while. There was such an overpowering reaction to the footage, you sort of feel like, ‘Oh, so we weren’t crazy for our reasons for loving this character, for loving this role.’ It’s interesting to see the power of the Internet. It’s awe-inspiring, actually,” Reynolds told the Niagara Falls Review. “And it’s neat that Twitter and Facebook and Instagram can move mountains when used in the right way.”
The long-gestating X-Men spinoff has flirted with celluloid in the past, with Tim Miller signing onto the project back in 2011. However, production stalled shortly after the creative team debated whether the adaption would be diluted to a PG-13 or, in keeping with the violent tone of the comics, be a no holds barred R rating.
And quite frankly, censorship still remains one of the potential problems of the film at this early stage. After all, fans of the amoral, katana-wielding badass may be disappointed if Deadpool is released as a commercially friendly movie. Nevertheless, if Miller and Reynolds were able to reign it in for the beloved test footage, the creative duo should excel now that they have a bigger canvas to work with.
Deadpool has been slated for release on February 12th, 2016.
