Bringing DEADPOOL to the big-screen was a long and torturous process but the end result proved to be worth it. The film was an enormous success and a sequel was soon green-lit with the entire original creative-team returning. Unfortunately development on the sequel wasn't without its own setbacks as creative differences with Ryan Reynolds led to director Tim Miller and composer Junkie XL departing the project. JOHN WICK co-director David Leitch was eventually brought in as Miller's replacement and the Merc with a Mouth was set for another round of fourth-wall breaking shenanigans.
Most sequels tend to think that bigger is better, but producer Simon Kinberg told Entertainment Weekly that their biggest mandate going forward is to keep the DEADPOOL sequel similar to the first in terms of scale and scope.
The goal for us when we sat down and started talking about it was it needs to be as provocative and startling as the first film which means it can’t just be a continuation of the first film. It has tonally and stylistically be as fresh and original. That’s a big challenge especially because they had 10 years to gestate on the first movie and we don’t have that kind of time on the second movie. That’s the biggest mandate going into on the second film: to not make it bigger. We have to resist the temptation to make it bigger in scale and scope, which is normally what you do when you have a surprise hit movie. But actually stay true to the tenets of it’s the tone and the style and the humor that make it so special — it’s not the explosions and the special effects.
With a budget of $58 million, considerably less than most superhero movies, and a worldwide gross of $782 million, the sequel can definitely afford to spend a little more cash, but I'm grateful that Reynolds and the team seem to be resisting the urge to go big. Not every superhero film needs to have the fate of the world in the balance. Getting the most bang for your buck is something that new DEADPOOL director David Leitch is quite familiar with, which Ryan Reynolds says is part of the reason he was chosen.
Everybody was just a fan of his work. He’s just a guy who’s so muscular with his action. He also really understands those Deadpool sensibilities and where we need to take the franchise from here. And I love John Wick. One of the things that David Leitch does that very few filmmakers can do these days is they can make a movie on an ultra tight minimal budget look like it was shot for 10-15 times what it cost.
DEADPOOL 2 is currently set for a January 12, 2018 release.
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