Fox dropped a bombshell last week when it was announced that a mysterious new ‘Deadpool’ movie, rated PG-13, was dropping in theaters on December 21, taking over the spot from ‘Alita: Battle Angel’, which shifted to February 14. ‘Deadpool 2’ just came out this past May, so the idea of a second ‘Deadpool’ this year is a complete curveball. How did everyone involved keep it quiet?
Producer Simon Kinberg didn’t offer much insight but gives all the credit to Ryan Reynolds.
“Ryan Reynolds and his studio—but I will give credit to Ryan Reynolds more than anyone else—is extraordinary at figuring out ways to get around the system. And be clever, both in terms of getting attention when it comes to viral stuff and in terms of deflecting attention when it comes to something like this. In the same way that Beyoncé and Kanye can drop an album out of nowhere, Ryan figured out a way to drop a movie out of nowhere.”
But other than that, Kinberg is remaining mum on the nature of this new ‘Deadpool’ movie.
“Zero percent am I answering anything. Zero percent am I answering that. You’re going to get nothing on that than my admiration for the way that Ryan and the studio has managed to keep it a secret up to this point.”
Presumably, some information will surface before the film comes out. Reynolds himself released the photo above showing him reading to Fred Savage, reenacting a scene from ‘The Princess Bride’ in which Savage starred as a child. This has led to speculation that the new movie will be an edited version of ‘Deadpool 2’ with some of the more explicit bits removed, as Reynolds will be “reading” about his exploits but leaving out any harsher elements. As for why, it’s possible that following ‘Deadpool 2”s weaker-than-expected box office performance, that Fox is hoping to transition away from the adults-only R-ratings into something that can draw a wider audience of people of various ages.
But if it is just a cleaned up re-release of ‘Deadpool 2’, December 21 is probably the worst date for it to hit theaters, as it will be competing against ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Bumblebee’, as well as the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly comedy ‘Holmes & Watson’ and Steve Carrell’s ‘Welcome to Marwen’. This would seemingly indicate that Fox doesn’t actually care how well this ‘Deadpool’ movie does and that it’s just getting a theatrical release as a formality in preparation for a DVD/Blu-Ray release a few months later.
But that’s IF this is just a clean edit of ‘Deadpool 2’. This may wind up being a brand new feature! If so, who knows what will happen?
Source: Collider
