Deadpool & Wolverine Director Shawn Levy Hints at MCU’s Future

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Now that the Deadpool & Wolverine party is over – in that everyone and their mother has seen this film by now (well, almost; I’m waiting for one of my friends to see it tomorrow so we can finally talk about it) – the after-party can begin, and for Marvel, that means talking about what happened in the new movie and what comes next. Admittedly, that’s not usually much fun these days, but there have been signs lately that Marvel wants to reverse course and maybe make some movies people want to see again. And Deadpool & Wolverine appears to be a genuine crowd-pleaser, with a good Cinemascore and tons of repeat business propelling it to the top of the R-rated box office charts. Personally, I’m caught in a weird spot where I didn’t think it was very good on a story or character level, but it was fun enough for me to more or less get past that and enjoy it. (How it holds up on a second viewing remains to be seen – I have my doubts.)

A few days ago, director Shawn Levy spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his experience making the movie, the many cameos and how they came about, dealing with Marvel, and what his future in superhero cinema will be. It’s an interesting read with some neat stories about filming Deadpool & Wolverine, but buried in the interview are some enticing tidbits about the future of the MCU, particularly an actor who will likely be showing up… and one who won’t. It also has some insight into how instrumental Ryan Reynolds was in crafting the Marvel meta-humor and how that gels with what we’ve heard about Marvel going forward.

***SPOILERS FOR DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE***

The first thing Levy almost offhandedly reveals is about Wolverine’s further MCU appearances. A recent rumor said that Henry Cavill’s cameo as a Wolverine variant was going to lead to him being the main MCU Wolverine, with Deadpool’s joke about how Marvel would treat him much better than the guys “down the street” the affirmation that Cavill was in. But according to Levy, that’s jumping the gun, as although he never mentions the rumor, he says that “Hugh Jackman’s job now feels quite secure,” indicating that Jackman will be sticking around to play the character he’s been bringing to life for almost a quarter of a century some more. And honestly, that makes more sense than Marvel swapping him for Henry Cavill. They went to all the trouble of bringing Jackman out of retirement and finally putting him in a comics-accurate super-suit (and the moment he slides the mask down at the end is immensely satisfying, like a legend getting his due), and the movie is about to break $1 billion with no signs of stopping anytime soon. As inartistic as this sounds, a company struggling as much as Marvel has to milk that for everything they can. I think you can take Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine in Avengers: Doomsday and, most especially, Avengers: Secret Wars to the bank.

Speaking of which, remember how Marvel announced that Robert Downey Jr. would return to the MCU as Doctor Doom instead of Tony Stark and how that exemplified all of the problems with the multiverse as Marvel uses it? Did you notice how that feels like a reversal of one of the messages of Deadpool & Wolverine, which is that the multiverse is stupid and unwieldy, none of the movies or shows featuring it have worked, and it needs to go away as fast as it can? It turns out there’s a reason for that: those jokes were Ryan Reynolds’ idea. Levy says that they came to Reynolds while they were filming, as did many of the best jokes:

“Off the very top of my head, certainly Deadpool turning to Wolverine and saying, ‘Welcome to the MCU. By the way, you’re joining at a bit of a low point.’ That was Ryan’s inspiration. Similarly, his speech to the Deadpool Corps. about miss after miss after miss: ‘Let’s just take the L and move on.’ And then Ryan improvising his Nicepool in response to his improvisation, ‘I think it’s been steadily uphill since Endgame.’ Those are two of probably a thousand inspired adds.”

Wait, are you telling me that the best jokes didn’t come from the She-Hulk writer Kevin Feige forced onto this movie’s writing team? Aside from making me like Ryan Reynolds even more and explaining why so much of Deadpool’s wacky dialogue feels as natural as it does, it puts Marvel’s stepping on the multiverse gas into perspective. Marvel was never in on that joke because, for some reason, they don’t see the multiverse as a problem. Considering what they’re doing with Robert Downey Jr., they seem to view it as a solution, or at least part of one. And that makes me wary about getting too hopeful for the MCU’s future. Sure, I’m thrilled they’re stopping the woke crap, which appears to really be happening (eventually), but that isn’t their only problem right now. They aren’t telling stories nearly as well as they used to, with convoluted plots that don’t make sense; Deadpool & Wolverine is guilty of that as well. They need to get better storytellers if they’re going to reverse their downward spiral, and part of that is jettisoning these stunts and shortcuts and creating real characters again. I’m glad to see Hugh Jackman back, but he’s a Band-Aid, not a cure. The same goes for Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, which will undoubtedly be a thing again, but he’s also playing Doctor Doom, which feeds into the problem. Marvel’s got a long way to go if they really want to fix the MCU, and based on Shawn Levy’s comments, I’m not sure they understand how.

Tell us what you think of Marvel’s future, Hugh Jackman and Henry Cavill, or Deadpool & Wolverine in the comments!