The long-awaited Deadpool & Wolverine is just a few months away, and fans have been itching to see it ever since it was announced. The star-studded event will not only be another chapter in the book of Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool, but it will also see the iconic Merc with a Mouth teaming up with one of comics’ most beloved badasses, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
But the film’s director, Shawn Levy, is setting the record straight on what we should be calling this movie. When it was announced, everyone referred to it as Deadpool 3, but Levy let us know a while back that the film’s title is Deadpool & Wolverine, which gives equal billing to the two characters for a good reason.
Despite being the third movie featuring Reynolds’s Deadpool, Levy explained to Screen Rant during CinemaCon:
“As far as crafting the Deadpool and Wolverine story, I just felt privileged every day because you’re talking about two massive movie stars in their most iconic roles. It also gave me an opportunity. It’s the third Deadpool movie, but it’s not Deadpool 3. It’s a different thing that’s very much Deadpool and Wolverine. And it’s not trying to copycat anything from the first two movies. They were awesome, but this is a two-hander character adventure.”
Levy teased that the film is “going to be gnarly” and “it’s gonna be funny,” and ultimately “wanted to build a great time at the theater for audiences” as their main goal. The director, writer and producer said that early screenings of the film “were extremely, extremely promising.”
“I wouldn’t say that there were any big surprises, but you feel where the pace wants to tighten, you feel where you can afford to slow down and have a deeper, more durable character moment,” he added.
Deadpool & Wolverine is set to arrive in theaters on July 26, 2024.