Ryan Reynolds has revealed that Disney told him to remove one line from Deadpool & Wolverine.
The actor, producer and co-writer, who achieved huge box office success with the film, also said that Marvel chief Kevin Feige shared some “haunting” advice with him ahead of production.
Reynolds has reflected on the film’s release two months on, elaborating upon why it took him so long to make it after 2018’s Deadpool 2.
“It had been six years since I had done one of those movies because you can’t take your hand off the stick – every scene has to do something or feel something,” he told audience members gathered at Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York on Tuesday (17 September).
Heightening the pressure was Feige, who oversees films released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), whose “haunting” words the actor recalled.
“He said something that sounds very pedantic and is probably not the thing to say out loud, but actually, weirdly, served as a creative engine,” Reynolds explained, adding: “He was like, ‘Make every scene great.’ And I was like, ‘Thanks, Kev. Sounds good.’”
The actor said that, as production on the film went on, Feige’s words “haunted me”, as it’s “hard” to make something “great”.
Reynolds also said he was concerned Disney, who owns Marvel, would act “like a red-line lawyer on every page” – but in actual fact, Marvel and Disney were “such great partners” who, ultimately, only told him to remove one line from the 15-certificate film. While Reynolds remained coy on revealing what the line was, he did acknowledge that Iger “was right” to ask.
While the film became a huge hit, many critics complained that the many meta jokes and unexpected cameos became “tedious”, with The Independent arguing the film “used” its audience.
However, Reynolds disagrees with this sentiment, telling the crowd the film was “engineered so that people walked out of the experience, at minimum, a little bit better than when they walked in, and at maximum, just walking on sunshine and feeling that audience delight”.
He said watching the film with an audience was “an apex moment in my life”.
