Now that we’re in awards season, there’s been a lot of speculation about the massively successful Deadpool & Wolverine’s chances of getting some Oscar nods. While superhero and comic book movies haven’t traditionally fared especially well when it comes to Hollywood’s biggest awards, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds believes that the third Deadpool movie has a chance, even if the film leans into the comedy more than the drama. Speaking with IndieWire, Reynolds spoke about how the screenplay for the film is more than just jokes.
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“Many of the alt jokes are written in advance. One thing that’s against it [in the awards space] is that a lot of people consider it a comedy,” Reynolds said. “That’s fair, but it has a backbone that is emotion and warmth. Comedy and drama both subsist on tension. Certainly comedy is designed to set up an expectation and then come 90 degrees to it or subvert it. Somehow, you can do that so much more when you have dramatic stakes.”
While the film’s raunchy jokes, meta humor, and constant comic book references may not exactly seem like the sort of thing that appeals to Academy voters, creating Deadpool & Wolverine’s pop appeal and lighter tone were actually the result of considerable work, something the film’s director Shawn Levy confirmed
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“There’s this presumption, because the movie has a bouncy, naturalistic flow to it that, ‘Oh, we’re just finding it through improvisation, and we’re trying stuff out on set,’” Levy said. “And certainly, there’s a little bit of that, but we refuse to go into production without a script that is honestly 95 percent reflective of the movie that everyone’s seen, and it really was the outgrowth of a long, long writing process.”
Strip away the gags and the fourth wall breaks and the Easter Eggs and the surprise cameos, and you’ll realize that bringing these two characters together on the big screen is a bigger challenge than it might seem. Reynolds’ natural comedic gifts undoubtedly enabled him to create Deadpool’s witty repartee seemingly out of thin air, but fleshing out this version of Wolverine wasn’t quite so simple, as the actor admitted.
“For me to write Wolverine dialogue was a terrifying process. There’s a specificity to the character,” he said. “Obviously, he’s very Clint Eastwood, less is more, he’s a non-verbal character. But we’ve also capitalized on Marvel’s pre-existing multiverse format to find a viable way to bring back a Wolverine that is maybe different than the one they knew in Logan. Not only that, we brought back what, contextually, is the worst Wolverine— this guy is a loser. So these are all problems you have to solve over and over again.”
Even putting Wolverine in his signature yellow costume from the comics – something audiences have been waiting for for more than two decades – had to be more than just fan service. In the film, this Wolverine variant is struggling with how a past decision led to the deaths of his fellow X-Men, explaining his reluctance to don his suit.
“It’s this symbol of his self-loathing and his conviction that he is beyond forgiveness, and the movie is a journey towards him forgiving himself,” Levy said.
As Reynolds and Levy note, Deadpool & Wolverine certainly goes far beyond the jokes and humor. But will Deadpool & Wolverine’s deeper themes and character work be enough to sway Academy voters? Stay tuned…
Deadpool & Wolverine is now streaming on Disney+.
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Image Courtesy of Disney+
