Deadpool & Wolverine

• 1. From Fox To Marvel Studios

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  Development on a third Deadpool film began at 20th Century Fox by November 2016. David Leitch was hired to direct Deadpool 2 in November 2016 after Tim Miller chose not to return due to creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds. The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger said Reynolds's Wade Wilson would be integrated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe when the acquisition of 21st Century Fox was announced in December 2017. Fox was looking for another filmmaker to develop the third film while Disney watched Once Upon a Deadpool carefully. In March 2019, Disney officially acquired Fox and gained the film rights to several Marvel Comics characters including Deadpool and the X-Men. The Marvel-based films that Fox had been developing were placed on hold. Josh Brolin said in June 2019 that he had discussed his future as Cable with Marvel Studios. Reese and Wernick confirmed that another Deadpool film would be made and that it would integrate the character with the MCU. Reynolds announced that he was meeting with Marvel Studios in October 2019. At that time, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was unsure how to integrate Deadpool into the MCU. He described Reynolds as an idea machine who pitched many different approaches for the film. In January 2021, Feige said filming would not begin until after 2021. Levy was revealed to be directing the film in March 2022. Jackman decided to reprise his role as Wolverine from Fox's X-Men film series in August 2022. This decision solved the creative team's issues with settling on a story.

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• 2. The Void And Multiverse Journey

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  Wade Wilson uses Cable's time-travel device to prevent the death of his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle in 2018. He then travels from his universe Earth-10005 to Earth-616 hoping to join that reality's Avengers. He is rejected by Happy Hogan and returns to his own universe. Six years later Wade has broken up with Vanessa and works as a used-car salesman with Peter Wisdom. During Wade's birthday party he is detained by the Time Variance Authority and brought to Mr Paradox. Paradox explains that they are an organization outside of time that monitors the Sacred Timeline. He offers Wade a future on the Sacred Timeline which Wade accepts until Paradox reveals that Wade's universe is deteriorating. Paradox plans to use a Time Ripper device to accelerate this process. Wade steals Paradox's TemPad device and uses it to travel to Logan's grave. When this fails Wade travels the multiverse searching for a replacement variant of Logan. Wade returns to the TVA with a variant of Logan who is considered to be the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. Paradox sends Wade and Logan to the Void a wasteland at the end of time. The pair are captured alongside Johnny Storm and taken to Cassandra Nova. Cassandra kills Johnny and leaves Wade and Logan to be consumed by the creature Alioth but the pair escape. They meet Deadpool variants Nicepool and Dogpool who direct them towards a resistance group. The resistance members distract Cassandra's henchmen while Wade and Logan block her powers using Juggernaut's helmet. Cassandra summons an army of Deadpool variants who kill Nicepool and battle Wade and Logan until Peter arrives to distract them. Wade and Logan destroy the Time Ripper together killing Cassandra in the process.

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• 3. Returning Actors And New Faces

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  Morena Baccarin returned as Vanessa Carlysle noting that she has a smaller role compared to previous films. Karan Soni reprised his role as Dopinder from the first two Deadpool films. Leslie Uggams played Blind Al while Rob Delaney appeared as Peter Wisdom. Stefan Kapičić voiced Piotr Rasputin Colossus and Shioli Kutsuna was Yukio. Tyler Mane played Victor Creed Sabretooth from X-Men 2000. Dafne Keen returned as Laura X-23 from Logan 2017. Jennifer Garner appeared as Elektra Natchios after portraying the character in Daredevil 2003 and Elektra 2005. Wesley Snipes played Eric Brooks Blade from New Line Cinema's Blade film trilogy 1998 to 2004. Chris Evans portrayed Johnny Storm Human Torch from Tim Story's Fantastic Four duology 2005 to 2007. Jon Favreau reprised his MCU role of Happy Hogan while Wunmi Mosaku returned as TVA member Hunter B-15. Channing Tatum appeared as Remy LeBeau Gambit who he was attached to portray in an unproduced Gambit film for Fox. Aaron Stanford reprised his role as John Allerdyce Pyro from the films X2 2003 and X-Men The Last Stand 2006. Emma Corrin joined the cast in a lead villain role playing Cassandra Nova. Matthew Macfadyen appeared as Mr Paradox an agent of the Time Variance Authority.

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• 4. Visual Effects And Technical Challenges

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  Swen Gillberg served as visual effects supervisor with effects provided by Industrial Light Magic Framestore Base FX Barnstorm VFX Raynault VFX Rising Sun Pictures and Weta FX. Framestore delivered 420 final shots including the fight with an army of Deadpool variants which is made to look like a single shot. ILM worked on 614 shots primarily for scenes in the Void. Because of the filming hiatus some scenes were filmed in Summer and others in Winter so visual effects helped create a consistent Winter look. The set for Cassandra's arena was extended to be made from a giant Ant-Man corpse. For Johnny's death ILM looked at Bodies: The Exhibition as part of their research. They added a comedic moment of Johnny blinking before he collapses to make the death more cartoony. Framestore and ILM both worked on Cassandra's powers which involve her hands moving through other characters' faces. Corrin was filmed hiding their arm so it could be replaced with a digital arm that interacts with a digital double of the other actor. Weta returned from the first two Deadpool films to provide facial animation for Deadpool's mask using a new machine learning tool. Method Studios worked with other vendors to plan the opening sequence and add title cards. Blood and gore were added digitally during post-production.

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• 5. Marketing Campaign And Box Office

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  A teaser trailer was released during Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024. The trailer had 365 million global views in its first 24 hours surpassing No Way Home record to become the most-viewed trailer in that time period. Disney spent $135 million to promote the film working with brand partners such as Heineken DiGiorno Jack in the Box Heinz Tim Hortons Coca-Cola and Android. A special popcorn bucket shaped like Wolverine's head with a comically oversized mouth was revealed after Feige said it would be intentionally crude and lewd. Reynolds appeared as Deadpool in a typically irreverent video at CineEurope to introduce 12 minutes of footage from the film. The cast went on a global marketing tour stopping at Shanghai Seoul Berlin London and Rio de Janeiro. Deadpool and Wolverine appeared in an ad for The Bachelorette on July 8 during the season 21 premiere. For the Formula One 2024 Belgian Grand Prix the Alpine F1 Team revealed Deadpool and Wolverine livery on July 24. Deadpool & Wolverine grossed $636.7 million in the United States and Canada and $701.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.338 billion. It became the fifth-highest-grossing MCU film and the 20th-highest-grossing film of all time during its release. On opening day in the U.S. and Canada the film made $96 million including $38.5 million from Thursday night previews both amounts were records for an R-rated film.

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• 6. Critical Reception And Cultural Impact

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  Critics praised the performances of Reynolds and Jackman as well as the humor but were less positive about the film overall. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes 78% of 414 critics gave it a positive review and an average rating of 6.9 out of 10. Metacritic assigned a score of 56 out of 100 based on 58 critics indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of A on an A+ to F scale. Deadline Hollywood Pete Hammond said the titular team-up works your wildest screen-team dreams. Olly Richards at Empire praised Jackman's performance saying he elevated the material in key moments. Matt Zoller Seitz reviewing the film for RogerEbert.com gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four. He said Jackman and Reynolds both gave moving performances as broken abandoned men. The film became the highest grossing R-rated film of all time surpassing Joker 2019 doing so in 23 days. It also became the second-highest-grossing film of 2024 behind Inside Out 2. With a net production budget of $429 million Deadpool & Wolverine is believed to be one of the most expensive films ever made.

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