Summary

Deadpool & Wolverine
director Shawn Levy insists the upcoming Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman superhero team-up “is not like any MCU movie.”
Levy discusses Marvel Jesus and the pressure of saving the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The filmmaker hopes the Merc with a Mouth’s multiverse adventure with Wolverine will “surprise” everyone.

Deadpool & Wolverine “is not like any MCU movie,” according to the film’s director, Shawn Levy. The Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly has suffered through its fair share of disappointments since the conclusion of Phase 3, which was marked by the multi-billion-dollar success of Avengers: Endgame and then finally Spider-Man: Far From Home. And some Marvel films which followed Phase 3, like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, have also flourished.

However, Phase 4 and 5 have been tough pills to swallow for many fans. Now, Levy hopes Deadpool & Wolverine can “surprise” everyone, and he addressed the idea of Marvel Jesus along with the pressure of saving the MCU in an interview with Total Film magazine (via GamesRadar+):

We came up with ‘Marvel Jesus’ two years ago. People love to get on bandwagons whether they’re positive, but frankly even more when they’re negative.

“We had no idea it would be this unique moment where people are asking what the MCU means anymore.
Can it surprise us?
Can it break molds in ways that we don’t expect?
We certainly hope that this movie is an answer to those questions.
What Kevin Feige has built with the MCU is historic as far as a string of successes.”

Deadpool & Wolverine Release Date July 26, 2024 Studio Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, 21 Laps Entertainment Tagline Everyone deserves a happy ending. Franchise Marvel Expand

Levy continued during the same sit-down:

“But culture has its tide chart,
culture has ebbs and flows.
And one thing we do know is you can’t keep doing the same thing ad nauseam
and expect people to greet it with the same excitement.
And so it just worked out really fortuitously because our movie is not like any MCU movie.
Yeah, and I say that as a fan of a lot of MCU movies.”

Deadpool 3 ‘Changed Radically’ Once Hugh Jackman Called

While Inside Out 2 was the first major blockbuster of the 2024 summer movie season, Deadpool & Wolverine is predicted to make well over $200 million domestically during its opening weekend alone. Much of the excitement swirling around director Shawn Levy’s film has to do with the fact that Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), is teaming up with Wade Wilson’s Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). And Levy admits that the Deadpool sequel “changed radically” once Jackman got involved. Levy said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“Everything changed radically on the day that Hugh called Ryan [Reynolds].
We had been workshopping a lot of ideas about possible stories for a third Deadpool movie.
Those were story ideas that were more sequelly to the first two Deadpools, but none of them imagined such a seismic shift.
I can safely say that the story completely changed and, in fact, came to us very, very quickly starting that day.”

Related Deadpool & Wolverine Director in ‘Early Conversations’ to Helm Avengers 5 A new report claims Deadpool & Wolverine’s filmmaker Shawn Levy is in line to helm the Avengers’ next big-screen adventure.

Jackman’s on-screen version of the X-Men’s Wolverine was last seen in the critically acclaimed and financial success Logan (2017) seven years ago. But the beloved character’s swan song and controversial death did little to slow down the anti-hero’s return. And thanks to the multiverse, a variant of Wolverine (Jackman) will be matching wits against the Merc with a Mouth in just over a month’s time.