5 Rules for the Deadpool Movie

Fox rocked the nerd world last week when they announced that, based on the fantastic response to the Deadpool test footage that came out of Comic Con, a full on Deadpool movie is coming in 2016.  While everyone is beyond excited, there’s some things that Fox needs to keep in mind about the Merc with a Mouth.

1. Get the actual comic writers for the script: Wade has had a fantastic run of writers over the years like Danny Way and the most recent team up of Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn and Fox should utilize them to accurately capture the witty banter that comes out of Wade’s mouth.  If that’s somehow not possible, you need someone like a Shane Black who can write great dialogue, which is one of the defining features of Deadpool.

2. Deadpool is not a complete joke: A lot of people just assume that Deadpool is the class clown of the Marvel universe and, while he’s almost always hilarious, he’s not just a joke machine.  Wade’s past is full of tragic events and if you want to make a great Deadpool movie, you should acknowledge the more serious side of the character.  The recent arc by Duggan/Posehn perfectly captured this when Wade was captured and brought to North Korea by evil Weapon X scientist, Butler, and learned that he had a wife and child who were possibly killed and left in a mass grave.  The most recent issue also featured an incredibly dark sequence where Wade, back in the 90’s and totally messed up by Butler, is tricked into killing what we assume are his parents.

3. Use the X-characters you have the rights to: Deadpool is always crossing paths with the X-Men and if Fox wants to create a Marvel Cinematic Universe style franchise with the X-Men and Deadpool, they need to start crossing over. Cable is the obvious character to feature, as he’s Wade’s BFF, but characters like Wolverine, Sabretooth, Mr. Sinister, Domino, Psylocke and more have all had run ins with Wade.  There’s also characters like Death and Alpha Flight who could make their movie debut.

4. Take a cue from Dredd: Whether or not Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool, it’s incredibly important that the person playing him keep the mask on for most of the movie and is horrifically scarred if he takes it off.  We can’t have the Wade that was in X-Men: Origins Wolverine for the entire movie, as it completely negates one of the most important aspects of Deadpool’s character.  I feel like the ideal would to be to get a stuntman/martial artist like a Ray Park or Scott Adkins in the costume and then have either Reynolds or past Deadpool voice actor, Nolan North, do the voice.  Also related to Dredd, it should be R rated (reports right now is that it will be PG-13).  One of Deadpool’s defining features is his ability to just take horrendous bodily damage and come back to deliver equally horrific damage to his foes. A bloodless, PG-13 Deadpool movie would just feel slighly off from what the character and comics have been for these past decades.

5. Focus as much on the action as the humor:  Behind all the pop culture references and chimichanga eating, it’s important to remember that Deadpool is still one of the most dangerous characters in the Marvel universe, an expert in pretty much every type of bladed weapon, firearms and explosives and his action sequences should reflect his skill.  He should be involved in shootous like the Matrix lobby fight but dropping one-liners the entire time.