If you look back at “Deadpool & Wolverine” coverage from about a year ago, you won’t see the most famous member of the X-Men’s name in the title. As recently as December 2023, /Film and other outlets were simply calling the future highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time “Deadpool 3.” Why? According to an interview Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy recently did with IndieWire, it all goes back to some tricky legal ins and outs related to the heroes involved — Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Reynolds) and James Howlett aka Logan aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).
“For some reason, we weren’t allowed to use the name Wolverine in the title,” actor, co-writer, and producer Reynolds told Indiewire, noting that he pitched studio head Kevin Feige “a dozen, maybe 16” Deadpool-related movies before settling on the idea they ended up with. Reynolds says he wasn’t sure why the odd couple wasn’t allowed to share billing in the beginning. “I’d have no idea why, some weird loophole thing, but at the last minute, we changed it to ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ and they somehow pushed it through.”
Shawn Levy, the “Stranger Things” filmmaker who directed “Deadpool & Wolverine” and is listed among its writers and producers, says that the negotiations around details like these related back to a “deal” — perhaps one related to Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets, including Fox-owned Marvel characters like Deadpool and Wolverine. “A lot of things started with ‘no,'” Levy explained. “Not because they were micromanaging, but because the lawyers down the hall said, ‘That’s not part of the deal.'”
Wolverine’s name was initially off the table
Levy describes Reynolds and himself as “hopefully respectful hammers” attempting to nail down the things they wanted most for the movie. “If we felt that something was right for this story, if it became a had to have, then we just were a little bit relentless,” the director admits. Reynolds says that “a lot of times,” decisions like the title choice come down to “persistence.” He also notes that the duo were initially told they couldn’t use the Blade or Gambit characters, though both end up appearing in the final film (played by Wesley Snipes and Channing Tatum, respectively). The pair were smart to push back against these limitations, as the sheer feeling of getting away with something within a carefully-planned, corporate-driven franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is what makes “Deadpool & Wolverine” so surprising and memorable.
As for the title, Reynolds says he initially pitched several rejected ideas. One was a movie called “Deadpool is Hunting” in which “the hunter who shot Bambi’s mom finds [Deadpool], and they fall in love, become, like, Butch and Sundance.” Another idea was a road trip movie with esteemed character actress Margo Martindale, made in the vein of a Sundance indie flick, the name of which Reynolds didn’t mention in the interview.
“The title was ‘Deadpool 3’ for a long time, then it was going to be ‘Deadpool and Friend,'” Levy says. Finally, the film was almost called “Deadpool vs. Wolverine,” but Levy says the writers realized in a “late-in-the-process epiphany” that Wade and Logan wouldn’t actually be enemies in the film. “The arc of the screenplay is they are pitted against each other until eventually, and frankly, for audiences, satisfyingly, are joined together,” Levy notes. “So it’s ‘versus’ that transitions into ‘and.'”
Thus, “Deadpool & Wolverine” was born. The filmmaking duo won this battle, even if they lost the Mickey Mouse fellatio joke war.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now streaming on Disney+.
