Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld is ready to tear Marvel a new one after feeling slighted at last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine premiere. Liefeld, who’s been a part of the Marvel family for more than 30 years after creating Deadpool and the grizzled time-travelling son of Jean and Scott Summers, Cable, says the studio disrespected him during the billion-dollar-making movie’s victory lap and wants everyone to know what the company is like behind the glowing headlines and dollar signs.
Speaking on the Robservations podcast and in a follow-up interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Liefeld details the slights he claims to have experienced at the New York premiere for Deadpool & Wolverine. According to Liefeld, it wasn’t until he was already at the premiere that Marvel decided not to invite him and his family to the afterparty. He also says that the Marvel Studios boss, Kevin Feige, failed to acknowledge him despite being near one another on the red carpet.
“It was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat me,” Liefeld said about feeling snubbed. Adding insult to injury, Liefeld claims he posed for professional photos with the Deadpool & Wolverine creative team members, but his publicist said Marvel deleted the images. Liefeld thinks Marvel snapped the photos as a courtesy with no intention of using them. However, he noted pictures of him and his family appeared in Disney’s Getty Images gallery. “At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear,'” Liefeld said on the Robservations podcast.
Liefeld penned a letter to Marvel last year, asking if he would receive a special credit for Deadpool & Wolverine. “Marvel’s treatment of creators has never been their strength,” he wrote. “Without the worlds, the characters and the concepts that we create — and in this specific case, the world of Deadpool — there are no films to shoot. No blockbusters to distribute. … I am not the easy button at Staples. I am the human imagination behind it all. Comic book creators cannot continue to be relegated as afterthoughts. This is easy to address. Unless I reach out to address it, it will never manifest.” Liefeld didn’t receive a response, but his agent told him that the letter was not received well at Marvel.
He was more involved with the first two Deadpool movies, which were made by 20th Century Fox, but things felt different on Deadpool & Wolverine. He visited the set in London but began to feel like he wasn’t welcome. Liefeld didn’t explain what happened, only saying, “Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well. That is my personal experience.” Liefeld announced his retirement from Deadpool last year.
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