Trivia / Deadpool & Wolverine

• Actor-Inspired Element: Wolverine's yellow and blue costume starts with sleeves due to Hugh Jackman having dealt with skin cancer and asking the producers to cover up his arms for protection.
• Approval of God:
  • James Mangold, the director and co-writer of Logan, was consulted on the script to ensure it didn't interfere with his film. He was pleased that Deadpool & Wolverine would bring back the latter without interfering with the ending of Logan.
  • Simon Kinberg, the producer of many X-Men films and writer/director of Dark Phoenix, serves as an executive producer on this film and has given his seal of approval for making it. He even commented it was good to be working with Kevin Feige again on a Marvel production.
• Author's Saving Throw: Due to coming off the highly-acclaimed Logan, which was initially conceived as Hugh Jackman's swan song for the role of Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds made sure to clarify that this film would take place before the events of said film and would not contradict or undermine them. Furthermore, James Mangold gave his blessing to the film, ensuring that Wolverine's return wouldn't undermine his work on Logan in any way.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Despite having retired from the role of Wolverine, Hugh Jackman changed his mind, as he thought the idea of working with Ryan Reynolds in a Deadpool movie was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Fortunately, he reached out to Reynolds just as he was meeting with Kevin Feige about Deadpool's next movie, and was immensely pleased they would give him a chance to come back without stepping on the ending of Logan.
  • Ryan Reynolds begged Hugh Jackman for years to return to the role of Wolverine, wanting nothing more than to make a Marvel movie as their characters together and have fun while doing so. Needless to say, he was nothing short of ecstatic once Jackman finally accepted the offer.
    Ryan: (on Twitter) It took seven years and a lot of begging but my Deadpool 2 end credit dreams finally came true...
  • Despite their lack of familiarity with the MCU, Emma Corrin jumped at the chance to join this film just so they could have the chance to play a villain in a movie for once.
• Content Leak:
  • Pictures of a fight scene between Deadpool and Wolverine, as well as the apparent involvement of Sabertooth, Toad, and a comics-accurate Cyclops, managed to get leaked to the public. Reynolds responded by "leaking" fake characters appearing in the film.
  • Merchandising leaks confirmed that Wolverine would wear not only the yellow and blue suit but also his iconic cowl.
• Creator's Oddball: Shawn Levy's filmography has mostly consisted of family-friendly works, but here he helms the third installment of the very R-rated Deadpool movie franchise.
• Fake Nationality: The Australian-born Hugh Jackman plays the Canadian James "Logan" Howlett.
• Inspiration for the Work: Director Shawn Levy used 48 Hrs., Midnight Run, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles to help shape Deadpool & Wolverine.
• Milestone Celebration: Comes out fifteen years since Deadpool's first cinematic debut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Ten years also thanks to X-Men: Days of Future Past retcon the events of that movie, which then later had test footage of the first Deadpool movie leaked onto the internet around two months that same summer in 2014.
  • The film's release in 2024, also coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Wolverine's debut.
• Production Posse:
  • Director Shawn Levy reunites with Hugh Jackman in his fourth outing after working with him in Real Steel, and his cameos in both Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Free Guy.
  • For Ryan Reynolds, this is Levy's third time working with him after Free Guy and The Adam Project.
• Release Date Change: The movie's premiere date was moved around four times. It was initially set to premiere on September 6th, 2024, but was subsequently delayed to November 8th, 2024. However, due to other Marvel films being more negatively affected by the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes, the movie was moved up to May 3rd, 2024. The movie was delayed one final time, with the premiere date being bumped to July 26th, 2024.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Shortly before the release of Deadpool 2, T.J. Miller was accused of sexual assault and involved in an incident where he made a false bomb threat. In response to this, Ryan Reynolds stated that Miller would not be involved in any future installments of the franchise. Weasel is not included in the teaser trailer and Miller has not been mentioned in promotional materials for this movie.
• Role Reprise: This movie has the involvement of several actors from the X-Men Film Series and other Marvel properties released by Fox returning to their roles for the first time in years.
  • Ryan Reynolds reprises the titular role of Wade Wilson/Deadpool six years after Deadpool 2. Alongside him are Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Rob Delaney as Peter W., Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Shioli Kutsuna as Yukio, Lewis Tan as Shatterstar, and Randal Reeder as Buck.
  • Hugh Jackman returns to his iconic role as Wolverine, seven years after last playing the character in Logan.
  • Jennifer Garner reprises her role as Elektra after a whopping nineteen years, having last played the character in the ill-fated 2005 spinoff from Daredevil.
  • Jason Flemyng reprises his role as Azazel thirteen years after X-Men: First Class.
  • From the original X-Men trilogy:
    • Ray Park as Toad and Tyler Mane as Sabretooth from the first X-Men, marking their return in nearly a quarter century.
    • Kelly Hu as Lady Deathstrike from X2: X-Men United, after a whopping twenty-one year absence.
    • Aaron Stanford as Pyro from both X2 & X-Men: The Last Stand for the first time in eighteen years after the latter's release, even wearing a comics-accurate costume for the first time. The same also applies to his Last Stand co-star Dania Ramirez returning as Callisto.
• Sequel Gap: Comes out a good six years after Deadpool 2. Not too bad, but noticeable after the two-year gap between Deadpool and Deadpool 2. This was mainly due to Disney's buyout of 20th Century Fox (by which point it wasn't certain a sequel was going to happen), massive COVID-19 Pandemic-related production shuffles and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes happening in the meantime.
• Sequel in Another Medium: While not a direct sequel, the TVA (Time Variance Authority) from Loki is set to return.
• Teasing Creator: Ryan Reynolds teased the idea of the TVA's involvement in this film more than a year before the movie's first trailer had released, having tweeted a simple "hello" to the Miss Minutes fan account after it inexplicably greeted him online (though Miss Minutes herself isn't confirmed to be in this film).
• Trolling Creator: After a series of set leaks, Ryan Reynolds posted several other "leaks" that featured Mickey Mouse, a Predator, and Steve Urkel to "confirm" their involvement in the movie.
• Troubled Production:
  • The movie was originally intended to be released under the slate of 20th Century Fox, but the project as a whole wound up being delayed when the studio was acquired by Disney. After that, Ryan Reynolds and the creative team decided to wait and see what Marvel Studios had planned for the character. Fortunately for them (as well as the fans), Kevin Feige confirmed that Reynolds' Deadpool would not be rebooted into the MCU, but kept as is (in sharp contrast to the X-Men or Fantastic Four, who would get full-on reboots).
  • Filming initially began in 2023, with a promotional image showing Reynolds and Jackman in full costume. However, the WGA strike didn't allow Reynolds to make any alterations to the script via ad-libbing, and production was shut down entirely when the SAG-AFTRA strike took place. After several months, everyone was able to return to set and finish filming by the end of January 2024.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The movie was originally going to be a "Rashomon"-Style Road Trip buddy comedy that centered around Deadpool trying to save Christmas. After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, this was changed drastically.
  • Deadpool would have likely appeared in a planned X Force film, that was intended before the third Deadpool installment. However, Disney's purchase of Fox Studios led to the eventual scrapping of the X Force film.
  • Vinnie Jones was asked to reprise his role as Juggernaut from X-Men: The Last Stand. Jones declined, due to budgetary reasons and from the "mental toll" of Juggernaut's costume.
  • Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin (Bob's Burgers, The Great North) were attached as writers at one point.
• Working Title: Considered titles apparently were Deadpool 3, Deadpool and Friends, and the delightfully bathetic Deadpool and Friend.
• You Look Familiar:
  • A side effect to the Canon Welding that will merge the Deadpool movies with the MCU; Lewis Tan is set to reprise his role as Shatterstar from Deadpool 2, even though he had previously portrayed Zhou Cheng, a warrior of the Hand, in the MCU's Iron Fist.
  • In the European French dub:
    • Ryan Reynolds' usual voice actor Pierre Tessier previously worked on the MCU voicing Darren Cross/MODOK.
    • Vanessa Carlysle's voice actress Julie Degenne previously voiced Hela in Thor: Ragnarok.
    • Blind Al's voice actress, Maïk Darah, previously voiced Miriam Sharpe in Captain America: Civil War and Mariah Dillard in Luke Cage.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub of the MCU, Wade Wilson/Deadpool's voice actor José Antonio Macías previously worked on the MCU voicing Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), making the scene where Deadpool salutes to a TV screen showing Captain America extra ironic.

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