Why Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine almost had a different title

If you looked at coverage of Deadpool & Wolverine from about a year ago, you wouldn’t see the most famous member of the X-Men in the title. like As recently as December 2023Movies and other outlets were simply calling out the future The highest-grossing R-rated film of all time “Deadpool 3.” Why? According to a recent interview conducted by Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy With IndieWireIt all comes down to some tricky legal details regarding the heroes in question – Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Reynolds) and James Howlett aka Logan aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).

“For some reason, we weren’t allowed to use Wolverine’s name in the title,” actor, co-writer and producer Reynolds told Indiewire, noting that he nominated studio head Kevin Feige for “a dozen, maybe 16” Deadpool-related titles. films before they settled on the idea they ended up with. Reynolds says he wasn’t sure why the odd couple wasn’t allowed to share bills at first. “I have no idea why, there’s a weird loophole, but at the last minute, we changed it to Deadpool & Wolverine, and they somehow got around it.”

Shawn Levy, the “Stranger Things” director who directed “Deadpool & Wolverine” and is listed among its writers and producers, says negotiations over details like this are more of a “deal” — perhaps related to Disney’s takeover of the 20th Century franchise. Fox originals, including Fox-owned Marvel characters like Deadpool and Wolverine. “A lot of things started with a ‘no,'” Levy explained. “Not because they were micromanaging, but because the lawyers in the room said, ‘That’s not part of the deal.’

Levy describes Reynolds and himself as “hopefully respectable hammers” trying to decide what things they wanted most for the film. “If we felt like something was right for this story, if it became a must-have, we were pretty relentless,” the director admits. “A lot of times,” says Reynolds, decisions like choosing a title come down to “perseverance.” He also notes that the duo were initially told they couldn’t use the characters Blade or Gambit, despite both appearing in the final film (played by Wesley Snipes and Channing Tatum, respectively). The duo was smart to work around these limitations, as the sheer sense of getting away with something within a carefully planned, corporate-oriented franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is what makes “Deadpool & Wolverine” so surprising and memorable.

As for the title, Reynolds says he initially presented several rejected ideas. One of them was a movie called “Deadpool is Hunting” in which “the hunter who shot Bambi’s mother finds Deadpool, they fall in love, and they become like Butch and Sundance.” Another idea was a road trip film with acclaimed actress Margo Martindale, produced in the style of the independent Sundance film, which Reynolds did not name in the interview.

“The title was Deadpool 3 for a long time, and then it became Deadpool and Friend,” Levy says. Finally, the movie was almost called “Deadpool vs. Wolverine,” but Levy says the writers realized in a “belated epiphany” that Wade and Logan wouldn’t actually be enemies in the movie. “The whole point of the script is that they’re pitted against each other until the end, and frankly, the audience joins together in a satisfying way,” Levy says. “So the word ‘versus’ goes to ‘and’.”

And thus “Deadpool & Wolverine” was born. The duo won this battle, even if they were Lost the Mickey Mouse tongue prank war.

Deadpool & Wolverine is now streaming on Disney+.