Three Hopeful Facts About Deadpool 2

Deadpool is absolutely killing it in the box office.  It’s breaking revenue records and doing so with a well-balanced arsenal of comedy, action, and drama.  It’s fairly safe to say that it is surpassing most of the expectations placed upon it while it was in production – especially the fear that the R rating would hamstring its earnings.

Not long after Deadpool broke the fourth wall on the silver screen, a sequel was green lit.  And if you hung around through the end credits you know that Cable is expected in the next film.

There’s a lot to be excited about in those two facts alone, but what the heck…I’ll give you a few more fun facts that are guaranteed to raise your anticipation levels for Deadpool 2.

[divider] Three Hopeful Facts About Deadpool 2 [/divider]

1.  Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are returning as writers for the sequel.  As they should. They did an amazing job of defining the character, giving him depth, and balancing the movie as a whole. I want more of that.

I am relieved I don’t have to worry about the movie switching hands and new writers choosing to overplay Deadpool’s inherent gimmicks and throw the balance off.

2.  They want to avoid what I call the Escalation Temptation.  Escalation Temptation is very real and has reaped untold damages on franchises over the years. It is partly responsible for why people are always saying that the sequels never measure up to the first installments.

For some reason, Hollywood will take a winning formula and try to “kick it up a notch” – not out of any real necessity, but because bigger = better in their thinking.  That’s not always the case, but we see it all the time.

Escalation is not necessarily the key to success. Sometimes it’s ruinous! In an interview with Collider, Wernick said,

“We don’t want $150 million to go make the next movie, that’s not Deadpool. Deadpool doesn’t lift cities up into the air or battle aliens coming down to earth, that’s just not Deadpool. So we’re happy in that little small budget range that they have us in; we don’t wanna blow this next one out.”

He understands Deadpool’s scale.  That’s not to say that the threats he listed didn’t work for the Avengers – it totally did. But this will hopefully mean that we will get another street level movie out of the Merc with a Mouth. That’s his wheelhouse. That’s where he will work well not just in concept but in execution. At least, that is, all by his lonesome. Which leads me to #3:

[DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS CONTAINED IN #3!]

3.  Keeping it small keeps Deadpool relatable.

In the same interview quoted above, Reese says,

“I don’t think we’re gonna see Deadpool and Cable on some far-flung planet 300 years from now because I just feel like that’s gonna be expensive, A, and will also take away from the relatability of Deadpool. I think at this stage in the game it’s about taking other people and dropping them into this reasonably insular, gritty, urban, dark world of Deadpool.”

By keeping the story small, they will keep Deadpool on our level which is super important.  All throughout the first movie, you totally get his motivations because they’re motivations you’ve experienced.

The Avengers’ motivation: Save the world. Noble, but not an actionable motivation I’ve ever had, nor am I likely to have it. I cheer for them because they’re doing what I could not, and I’ll cheer for them every time.  However, I cheer for Deadpool because he’s doing what I would do – right up to putting Ajax out of commission at the cost of being the hero Colossus wants him to be.

And yes, I stand by the statement that had someone tortured me, taken my girl, and attempted to take my life…I’d want to put him down, not lock him up.

#realtalk

[divider] Hopeful Facts About Deadpool 2 [/divider]

This far away from the sequel, its hard to guess at what they should or shouldn’t do with Cable in the mix.  Of the three elements that gave Deadpool legitimate success – comedy, action, and drama – the genuine drama element will be the hardest to replicate.

I am most curious about how they’ll manage to make me feel and not concerned at all whether or not I’ll be entertained with laughs and action.  Those two are guaranteed.

But with Reese and Wernick at the helm, I have real hope that they’ll figure out a way to make it work.  Certainly more hope than if anyone but “The Real Heroes” (as they’re called in the opening credits, and not incorrectly so) were named as the writers.  Consistency usually begets consistency (see Terminator 1 and 2), but it is no guarantee (see The Matrix trilogy…which also suffers from the Escalation Temptation).

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