Deadpool upside down

Naturally, the world is buzzing about ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ right now. With two of the biggest superheroes of all time exchanging fisticuffs, how could people not be talking about it? However, if you still want a comic book movie fix this weekend that isn’t (very) bad or a yawn (of justice), ‘Deadpool‘ is still in theaters and eager to please. After all, you could finally pick up on all the little details that you missed while you were laughing the first time around. To give you a little head start, the filmmakers recently discussed the Easter eggs contained in the opening title sequence. And just in time for Easter too!

During a recent interview with Art of the Title, ‘Deadpool’ director Tim Miller and layout supervisor Franck Balson of Blur Studios talked about the hilarious, hyper-violent opening moments of the Merc With A Mouth’s solo film set to the smooth stylings of Juice Newton’s ‘Angel of the Morning’, as well as the creative process that brought it to life. After sharing that this sequence was put on hold at one point and almost completely cut due to budget restraints, Balson revealed that the credits were originally placeholders until additions to the cast were made to fill in the blanks:

“It was in the script — at least the very first one that I read. It was actually pretty clear: It was this frozen moment with one of the thugs and the lighter coming out of his mouth. It was basically saying these guys are fighting in the car and we’re moving across this macro world seeing all these pieces of debris. Then we reveal that Deadpool is in there and it switches back into real-time, and into the movie…

The funny part was that, at the time we started the title sequence, no one had been cast except Ryan Reynolds. So because it was a title sequence the only names that were in there were Tim’s — which he asked me to remove really quickly — and Ryan’s. But we needed placeholders for the rest.  I’d read the script and knew there was going to be a ‘hot chick’, a ‘young girl’, a ‘bad guy’, and so forth. That was the only thing we could put in there because we didn’t know who else was going to be in it.

So one day Tim asked me if I had a version of sequence and I was like, ‘Yeah, but it’s not finished.’ But then I showed it to him and he liked it.”

The pair then went into each individual gag contained in the scene. They started with the Green Lantern trading card, which was actually a stock image that they bought and photoshopped with Reynolds’ face on it. Apparently, there were a number of iterations before landing on the one that made it onscreen. As for everything else, they touched on the various things that could have easily been overlooked and even a few things that were left out:

Deadpool Ryan Reynolds Green LanternBalson: Killebrew is on the phone but it’s so out of focus that you never see it properly.

Miller: Yes, Doctor Killebrew is the guy in the comics that runs the Workshop. Also the thug in the beginning with the lighter coming out of his mouth — we had a joke we filmed where Deadpool burns a circle in the middle of his forehead and says “I loved your work in Daredevil!” Colin Farrell was Bullseye in the Daredevil movie and he had a little target tattoo in the middle of his forehead. So that joke was something Ryan added as a fun insider gag originally, even though we eventually changed it to a broader joke, “I never say this, but don’t swallow!” [laughs]

Balson: We have Rob Liefeld on a coffee cup — Rob L. You have the little sex keychain as a little quick thing, you have the Ryan Reynolds cover, then you have the wallet that has Ryan Reynolds again, the Orange Number 5 card, the Hello Kitty, Deadpool’s junk, which is how we introduce the character…

Miller: That’s not quite an easter egg… As we said, we had more, but we took them out because it was confusing.

Keep in mind that these are only the hidden gems contained in the opening title sequence of the movie. There are tons more to uncover throughout the movie. So what are you waiting for? Go to a theater near you for another viewing of ‘Deadpool’! Or, if you have kids, be responsible and go see ‘Zootopia’. You can wait for ‘Deadpool’ on Blu-Ray, True Believer. The Easter eggs aren’t going anywhere. (Unless they’re made of chocolate, in which case they’ll be going to happy bellies this weekend.)

‘Deadpool’ starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Gina Carano, and Ed Skrein is now playing.