It’s been a long, long time since “Deadpool 2” — three years this coming May, in fact. And until today we still didn’t know for sure if there would even be a “Deadpool 3.”
Yes, one had to assume it was only a matter of time. “Deadpool” is after all among the most successful franchises Disney acquired when it purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019. The first film made $782 million back in 2016, and in 2018 “Deadpool 2” earned $785 million, setting a record as the highest grossing R-rated film until 2019’s “Joker” topped it with $1.074 billion.
But, well, the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t exactly know for extreme profanity and graphic, graphic violence, and extreme profanity and graphic, graphic violence are two of the most important pillars of the “Deadpool” film series. Perhaps that’s why, despite that financial success, after the Fox purchase Marvel kept announcing new film project after new film project but never “Deadpool 3.”
That changed over the weekend, when Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige finally confirmed that “Deadpool 3” is happening. No doubt you have a lot of questions, so we’ll try to answer them as much as we can. Here’s everything we know (so far) about “Deadpool 3.”
Will Marvel Tone Down “Deadpool” for the Family Friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe?
This is probably the thing you care the most about so we’ll just give it to you straight up: No. F— no. Disney is not f—ing pulling that kind of bulls—. Fans can rest easy that Wade Wilson is going to swear, maim, and, probably, show us his penis at some point like always because “Deadpool 3” will be rated R, just like “Deadpool” and “Deadpool 2.” In fact, it’s going to be Marvel Studios’ first R-rated movie. Ah, milestones.
Feige confirmed that fun fact at the recent press junket for “Wandavision,” telling Collider “it will be rated R.” F— yeah!
Great, but Will It Be Part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Yes. Feige said as much when he described Deadpool as “a very different type of character in the MCU.”
But how will that work out? That’s a good question! That we uh, don’t have an answer for. But feel free to speculate along with us.
Will Deadpool be brought into the Avengers only to find himself censored and forced to deal with bleeping? He knows he’s a movie character so this would, we think, provide some fun jokes.
Will we get some surprising profanity from established MCU characters who show up in “Deadpool 3”? Honestly, give us a Bruce Banner who drops mega f-bombs as he hulks out. Please.
Will Deadpool show up first in some other character’s movie… or even one of the upcoming Disney+ MCU TV shows? Disney, listen to us here: The severed-in-half-regrowing-his-legs-and-penis Deadpool seen in “Deadpool 2” could be your next Baby Yoda. You’re welcome.
With absolutely no evidence, we declare all of the above absolutely true, since they all sound like pretty cool possibilities.
What About Ryan Reynolds?
Don’t worry, Marvel won’t be changing horses mid-stream. Ryan Reynolds will still star as Deadpool and he and his team will be working with Marvel Studios to bring Mr. Pool to the MCU. In fact, according to Feige, the script is in development right now with Reynolds “overseeing” it.
When Is It Coming Out?
We regret to inform you that it’ll be a long while. Feige says “it will not be [filming] this year.” Sorry guys. The reason is that, per Feige, “Ryan is a very busy, very successful actor” and also, Marvel already has a pretty stacked backlog thanks to COVID. “We’ve got a number of things we’ve already announced that we now have to make, but it’s exciting for it to have begun,” Feige says.
He’s not kidding. Marvel postponed every theatrical release planned for 2020 due to the pandemic, and those films are now coming out later this year, starting with “Black Widow.” But the studio has also announced several additional film projects with specific release windows, plus a couple others still TBD.
Just so you can get your head around it — and assuming, of course, that it doesn’t take longer than hoped to bring COVID-19 under control once the administration that made the pandemic problem so bad is replaced by Joe Biden’s — here’s what the studio’s current feature film schedule looks like:
Film: “Black Widow”
Release Date: May 7, 2021
Film: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
Release Date: July 9, 2021
Film: “Eternals”
Release Date: Nov. 5, 2021
Film: The third “Spider-Man” film
Release Date: Dec. 17, 2021
Film: “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”
Release Date: March 25, 2022
Film: “Thor: Love and Thunder”
Release Date: May 6, 2022
Film: “Black Panther II”
Release Date: July 8, 2022
Film: “Captain Marvel 2”
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Film: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
Release Date: TBD 2023
Film: “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
Release Date: TBA
Film: “Fantastic Four”
Release Date: TBA
Pretty packed! And yeah, while there isn’t anything to necessarily prevent “Deadpool” 3 from being squeezed in somewhere among the films with set release dates, we’re going to assume that won’t happen. We expect to wait until at least 2023 before Deadpool returns.
Who’s Writing It?
Given that the opening credits of “Deadpool” pronounced that the screenwriters were the film’s “real heroes,” this is a pretty important question. That film was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick; they returned to write “Deadpool 2,” joined that time out by Reynolds himself. But things are going to be a little different for the third installment.
Reese and Wernick were working on a new script back in 2019, but for reasons unknown Reynolds and Marvel started looking for new writers and in November 2021 landed on sisters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin, best known for their Emmy-winning work on the animated comedy series “Bob’s Burgers.” So whatever else “Deadpool 3” will be, it’s definitely going to be hilarious.
And that’s it! We will, of course, keep you updated as soon as we know anything.