Deadpool 2

Earlier this week, we reported on rumors that were coming out of a test screening of ‘Deadpool 2’. Namely, those rumors dealt with audience reaction and suggested that the film had gone over rather poorly and that some last minute reshoots were being considered to salvage the film ahead of its May arrival. Not exactly what anyone wants to hear about the follow up to arguably the most unexpected hit of 2016.

At the time, we told you to take that with a massive grain of salt since these were all unsourced, secondhand rumors (driven by a number of “I’m hearing…” tweets). And there was a reason for that. A contradictory account has now emerged from Collider. Citing anonymous sources, they describe a series of test screenings that returned audience scores in the range of ninety out of one hundred. Hardly a disaster. However, they say that reshoots were ordered to address a complaint that was consistent across all of these screenings: audiences, it seems, wanted to see more of Cable and Domino (played by Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz respectively).

This, too, would be best taken with a grain of salt. After all, we have anonymous optimists on one hand and secondhand pessimists on the other.  And there’s another matter to consider, namely the change in directors. As one of the tweets cited in our previous article noted, director Tim Miller and star Ryan Reynolds worked very closely with each other on ‘Deadpool’ before Miller departed ‘Deadpool 2’ amid creative differences. If the worst is to be assumed, it could well be that Miller’s contributions provided some of the first film’s X-factor. But having said that, David Leitch is no slouch, having demonstrated his chops at the helm of both ‘John Wick’ and ‘Atomic Blonde’. At the very least, we can expect some expertly crafted action scenes. In any case, we’ll find out when the film hits theaters.

Directed by David Leitch, ‘Deadpool 2’ will see Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Stafan Kapicic, and Brianna Hildebrand reprise their roles from the original alongside newcomers Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz and Jack Kesy. The film is due to arrive in theaters on May 18, 2018.