02x08 - The Making of Deadpool and Wolverine

[bunniefuu]

[Shawn Levy] Should we start
making the movie, y'all?

Monday morning. Let's go.

I love Deadpool 1 and 2.

I've always been a fan of Marvel movies.

And so, to get to kind of develop
certain muscles as a filmmaker in the MCU

with this character
and this franchise I love so much,

that was an opportunity I jumped at.

This movie has definitely
introduced me to subjects,

topics and all kinds of foul thoughts,
the likes of which I've never known.

So thank you for that, Deadpool.

It's a little bit like destiny,

because it was a decade ago
on the set of Real Steel

that Hugh Jackman said to me,

"Hey, do you know Ryan Reynolds?"

And I was like, "Nope.
I think he's Canadian like me."

And he's like,
"If you ever work with Ryan,

"you guys will never stop."

- I'm glad that this is being captured.
- Yeah.

- Strut lesson.
- [laughter]

[Levy] Frankly, Hugh Jackman
might be part-time prophet,

because from the day I started
working on Free Guy with Ryan,

there was this brotherhood
and this really kind of shared sense

that we want to make movies
that are entertaining

and understand that they're in
the business of being entertaining,

but that we also would like to believe
they can be fun and thematic

and ultimately warm-hearted
in a way that, you know,

allows us to leave
the theater feeling better

and maybe more hopeful
than we did when we went in.

[Ryan Reynolds] I kind of think of Shawn
and I as, like, kelp underwater.

We're always kind of moving together.

He's one of those, like,
creative soulmates

that I wish I'd found
earlier in my career,

and I know he feels the same

and we kind of have this
similar work ethic and rhythm.

We also are very lucky to have an ability
to cover for each other in certain ways.

Movies like this are such an undertaking.

[Levy] Ryan and I rolled from
the kind of amazing chemistry we had

on Free Guy right into The Adam Project.

And it was when we were
sh**ting The Adam Project

that Ryan said, "Hey, you know,
I don't think I'll do a Deadpool 3

"if you don't direct it.
Would you ever consider it?"

And I was like, "Yeah."

He goes, "I know I'm gonna
have to talk you into it."

I'm like, "Nope,
you don't have to. It's a yes."

Day one.

I think there are a lot of fans
who have been patiently waiting

since long before the character
came back home to Marvel Studios.

And then when it did,
we spent a long time working with Ryan

to come up with the best idea.

Ryan Reynolds is an idea machine.

He is almost wholly responsible for
bringing that character to the big screen.

He believed in it
back when very few other people did,

in a very different time
for Marvel movies.

And created something entirely unique.

It was a different tone.
I knew it would be something different.

I'd never seen anything like it.

His portrayal of Deadpool is so perfect.

[sighs] This just feels right.

[Wendy Jacobson]
Because of Deadpool 1 and 2,

the expectations are just high,

and we just want to keep
one-upping everything we do.

I think that was proven
in part of the early development process.

I think Ryan had 19, 20 ideas,
throwing anything at the wall.

Aah! Okay. Well...

I'm all out of aces, peanut.

I mean, I'd pitch them
as, like, a Sundance movie.

I'm not kidding.
Like a $4 million budget Marvel movie

with no action but a Deadpool suit.

Um, I pitched them mid-sized,
big, small, all kinds of stuff,

So, I kind of felt like
I'd maybe run the gamut,

and I didn't blame them. I blamed myself.

You know, 'cause I'm Canadian.

Get my country's name out of your mouth.

I was going through my notes
the other day, looking at stuff.

We had some crazy ideas.

At one point, we talked about
a frame-for-frame remake of Thor 2

up until the midpoint with Deadpool in it,
and then it would go to another place.

We had Deadpool's
Deleted Scenes Extravaganza.

We were going to try and show
that he was in the MCU the whole time.

You just didn't see his scenes.
They were all on the cutting room floor.

We were really trying to figure out
what was the reason for this movie to be.

[Zeb Wells] Hugh Jackman as Wolverine,
you could make a strong case

that the entire superhero movie industry
is built on that performance,

because that performance
in X-Men showed everyone,

if you take these characters seriously,
and get them on the screen

as they're loved and written
in the comic book world, it works.

I know you, bub?

Nope. But I know you.

[scoffs] Everybody knows me.

I'm the Wolverine.

I don't think I fully understood
what it meant to the wider world.

I was not a comic book fan
in particular growing up.

I had never heard of X-Men.

And in some ways,
I'm really glad I didn't know.

Because I really approached Logan
as I would any other character.

Yes, he had claws coming out of him,
he could heal himself,

and he had kind of crazy hair.

But for me, it was just
another character to embody.

I am wearing this suit.

[breathing heavily] And that means
a lot of things, but most of all...

it means I'm an X-Man.

Wolverine is kind of
a Clint Eastwood archetype, you know.

He's very economical with words,
kind of only speaks if he has to speak,

really expresses himself through violence.

Are you ready to be calm now?

[grunting and groaning]

[Reynolds] Because he's an actor
that is like a Swiss Army Knife,

Hugh can really pivot
in strange and wonderful ways.

This suit's all I got to remind me of
who they were.

And what I did.

Very early on in the process
of the Deadpool's history,

we talked about, "Wouldn't it be great
to get him together with Wolverine?"

But when it doesn't happen
through a couple of movies,

and then they k*ll off Logan,
you start to lose faith in that idea

and you don't really to think of it
as a real possibility anymore.

I really thought when we finished Logan,

I'm really proud of the film.
I'm proud of what we created.

And I meant what I said when I was done.

I just wanted...

Get out everything that I had felt
in 20 years of the character.

I wanted to be able to put that story
out there for the fans, for myself.

And then, August 14th, 2022,

I was driving to the beach,

and in my head, I don't know why,

"What you want to do, Hugh?"
That's the thought that came into my head.

Not really work, just life.

And like a bolt of lightning came,
"I want to do Wolverine-Deadpool."

Sorry, Ryan.
That's how I see the title, by the way.

Let's give the people what they came for.

[grunts]

[Jackman] And so,
I was desperate to call Ryan

'cause I knew that he and Shawn
were working on something.

I didn't know when they were sh**ting.

There was just silence
on the end of the phone.

I said, "If you'll have me,
I want to do this movie.

"I know in my gut."

[Reynolds] It was literally kismet.

I mean, it felt like
the stars were aligning

because I said,
"I'm about to go do my last pitch

"for this character and this movie."

And I pitched a movie with him
where I was winging it.

I wasn't prepared.

And the basic story was what is now made.

Deadpool and Wolverine.
[chuckling] Can you imagine?

Oh, the fun.

The chaos.

The residuals.

I had always been very vocal with Hugh

that he had one of the best endings
of any fictional character ever.

And I told him that is so amazing,
what he was able to accomplish in Logan,

that's what we were striving for
with Robert Downey Jr. in Endgame,

is to give this incredible iconic
fictional character an amazing ending.

Logan?

The guy with forks for hands?

That Wolverine?

Obviously, I was throwing
a major spanner in the works, you know.

But I just said, "I'm in."

'Cause I know Ryan and Shawn.

They also have such a reverence
for legacy and for the fans

that I've never worked on something
where people have worked harder

to protect the integrity of Wolverine.

I have massive reverence
for Logan as a movie.

In fact, it's one of the few times
in my life where I walked out of a movie,

got the number of the director
and begged him to have lunch with me.

And it was specifically
to ask James Mangold

about what to me is

top five, maybe top three
greatest final shots of any movie.

When Laura takes that cross
and puts it on its side,

and it becomes an "X,"
I thought it was just perfect.

I literally get goose bumps
thinking about it now.

And yet, we're making Deadpool.

Deadpool is defined
by subversiveness and audacity.

And so, what if you make
the first scene of Deadpool-Wolverine

the last shot of Logan?

We then started really riffing on,

"Well, let's say we're there.
What would we do with that grave?"

That was one of those moments
where I was like,

"We really have to make sure
that this delivers."

Like, how do we make
even those little throwaway things great?

"G'day, mate.

"There's nothing that'll
bring me back to life faster

"than a big bag of Marvel cash."

[laughs] Me too, Hugh.

[Levy] Welcome to Logan's grave.

We are here in something called Black Park
in the United Kingdom.

June 2023.

And today begins the cold open prologue.

[yelling and screaming]

We are on a Zoom,
Ryan and I are in my office in New York.

We're on with Wernick and Reese in LA,

our screenwriters who wrote
the first two Deadpool movies as well.

And Ryan's like, "I hate myself
for the idea I'm about to pitch."

[Reynolds] I could really use
your help right now.

"I should use his body as a weapon."

Yes.

Once we had the concept for this sequence,

the next step was, "Okay,
what is the physicality of that?

"What are the moves?"

One of the first people we hired
on this movie was Alex,

and he was a Deadpool stunt double,

the Deadpool stunt double,
the central one in Deadpool 1.

We knew that he was
a choreographic genius.

He can also do things physically

that are stunningly graceful
and imaginative.

And we felt like here was an opportunity

to give a super-talented guy
a major break.

- Peek-a-boo.
- [choking]

Ready, and go.

Do you want to describe the process?

- Step one for this is called stunt-vis.
- Yes.

[Levy] That's where the stunt team
plays around with ideas,

- literally films it on an iPhone.
- [Alex] Yes, exactly.

And it's how we start to incubate
the creative on an action sequence.

So, what was the first step for you?

The first step for us was just, you know,
going to a little shop, buying a skeleton,

multiple of them,

peeling it apart,
looking at it on the ground.

How do you k*ll people
with different parts of the skeleton?

I tried doing
the full body skeleton first.

- Okay.
- See how it breaks.

- Okay.
- And then taking each bone

and see how we can k*ll.

And I'll grab a guy

and we'll start choreographing
different moves.

And this was early in prep.

So I'm sure right about now,
the editor of whatever you're watching

is going to cut
to Alex's earliest stunt-vis,

where he's wearing, like,
a rinky-dink Deadpool-esque red costume.

And it's where we started to get

a sense of the imaginative,
violent, gory but also comedic action.

[both] Whoa!

- Cut.
- [man] Cut.

The M.O. from the beginning of this movie
was we want it in camera.

We don't want to play with this in post.

We want to bake this into the lens.

So, if there's an ability
to get this for real, let's do it.

The special effects department
snowed a whole forest,

and we shot it practically.

It's such an epic image, right?

There's one shot in there
that we worked on for weeks

to get it dialed in,
which was a high-speed 360 shot,

which involved Alex in the middle

fighting 14 other TVA agents
as they came in

with the camera on a high-speed rig
going around.

So, they dug a massive hole,
buried the camera in the ground,

covered it all up, and then we worked
in and around this high-speed camera.

The idea was that
we would sh**t that as a oner.

As the camera's going around,
all of the fights and the moves

had to play to that camera
in those specific moments.

So, it's a really tricky,
complicated shot.

We had 25 stunt guys for two weeks.

And we must have k*lled all of them
at least two or three times.

I mean, it was just carnage.

I don't think it needs
to be any more brutal.

I wonder if, uh, we punt the head away.

[Cottle] Ryan did this really great shot
where he got the skull,

flipped it and kicked it.

And we did this beautiful
wide in the forest,

and there's just dead bodies
littered everywhere.

It's like the opening of Private Ryan
on the Omaha Beach.

It's just crazy.

It's gold! It's f*cking gold!

Okay, that's enough. Back to work.

[Levy] Ryan had given me the heads-up

that the standards
of doing this franchise,

especially when you're
the third of the Deadpools,

after two really, really good Deadpools,

the bar is higher than it almost ever is
on any movie.

He said, "I'm just going to warn you.
It's not like a regular movie.

"It's not even like a regular huge movie."

Because on a Deadpool movie,
you need to get a great, great take,

and that take, after which
you normally move on, on any other movie,

you don't move on.

You push for funnier, you push for better.

If it's a single in terms of funny...

Like, we'd only want
triples or homers, right?

We were relentless with it.

We never let it go,
even right into the sound mix.

You're going like,
"Maybe we can just change..."

"Let's just stop
and think about this and..."

And it's made the movie
the movie that it is, and I love it.

The only thing I would say is that
when I go... [spitting]

"Regenerate?" I would just...

I know it's kind of weird.
Just let that hang in the air

like the most uncomfortable
pause of all time.

Yeah, like one, two...

[Levy] It's relentless.

He warned me it would be relentless,
and it's every day on set.

It's every moment in the cutting room.

It's every moment that I get
a musical score from Rob Simonsen

and I give a round of notes
to change that French horn to a trombone.

You're talking about micro adjustments,
a change in a joke,

one word different that takes her
from being funny to shockingly funny.

Maybe I'll just get her turning to me.

Doesn't even matter the line,
where I'm just heavy eye contact...

Do you want to go again?

- I do. I don't, but I do.
- Okay, great.

Okay, but you do.

If you can't be a responsible pet owner,

then maybe you don't deserve
this little unicorn.

So, I picked up that gauntlet,
and I've loved wearing it,

if that's what you do with a gauntlet.

[laughter and applause]

Yeah!

Better than we ever dreamed!

Maximum effort.

I think there's certain cornerstones
of expectation to a Deadpool movie, right?

Tone is the main one.
Brand of humor is another one.

Pegging isn't new for me, friendo.
But it is for Disney.

The occasional use of voice-over,

the occasional use of fourth wall breaks,
direct to camera.

Suck it, Fox!

I'm going to Disneyland.

- So good.
- Crazy fourth wall break.

And I like where you put
the headbutt just now,

not at the end.

Yeah, I mean that...

It's funny, there have been
moments where Ryan's like,

"I don't know if we should do that again."

I'm like, "No, no, I need to talk to you,
not only as your friend,

"but as just Joe Audience,
fan of Deadpool movies.

"Give me some of what I love, man."

You're nasty.

I love it.

[Levy] "Make it different,

"but don't throw me
into completely unfamiliar waters."

So I'm trying to strike that balance
of the expected and the beloved

with the invention of the new.

I am about to give you
the thing you've always wanted.

I smell what you're steppin' in.

The power in the Marvel Universe
is about to change forever.

And we're looking at Deadpool.
Things are getting tense.

Three, two, one. Zap.

[Matthew MacFadyen]
Working with Shawn and Ryan,

it's sort of lovely to watch
people you've sort of admired from afar

and then you see them at work.

And it's great that,
to see them being so nimble

and sort of effortlessly funny
and quick and adaptable.

Ryan knows Deadpool so well,
and so, if you pitch an idea,

sometimes he'll just
start riffing as Deadpool.

Adamantium katanas.

You shouldn't have.

Boom, boom, boom. Boom.

- You know, landing here. There you go.
- [soft laughter]

Let yourself release,

just suckle that... That whole thing.

You feel like Deadpool's
sort of got his hand on the wheel.

And I'm just going to say,
"Why was Thor crying?"

- Then you can ignore me and keep going.
- Okay

It's an amazing atmosphere.

Everything is incredibly
planned out meticulously,

and once you have
that secure framework in place,

you do have the space to play
and to do, like, off-the-cuff jokes,

which is what Ryan and Shawn
both do so well.

The only thing that might just be
just so childish and stupid,

you may not want to use it, is the
"Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God..."

- Oh, my God, he's gonna say it. Hah!
- f*ck.

- He's gonna say it!
- Say what?

Avengers, assemble...

- Flame on!
- I'm sorry, what now?

[Levy] Because Ryan and I are in
our fifth year of collaborating together,

many times in the middle of a scene,
I'll be like, "Hey, Ry, could you..."

He goes, "Yep. 'Cause with the... Yeah."

And he knows what I was going to say.

Ryan, just show me that gesture.
That body...

Yep. Yeah. Thank you.

They'll walk away for a minute
and kind of be like... [chatters]

And then they'll come back
and it cracks me up.

Like, just trying not to
crack up on set is hard

because every time it's different.

Canadians are supposed to be nice!

One more outburst like that
and I will turn this car around!

God, you are such a d*ck!

Is it "gubernatorial"?
It's a confusing word.

Cut.

It's such a fun thing to be a part of,
but intimidating as well.

I'm going to use your little contraption
to destroy this universe,

and the next and the next and the next...

until I lap up the Sacred Timeline

like a cartoon puppy eating spaghetti.

[slurping, munching]

It'll be funny if she doesn't know
how to eat spaghetti.

So, she's like...

Or... [gnawing]

[laughter]

It's knowing what and part when.

When to say like, "Okay, no.
Maybe let's not have that joke here."

Or, "This needs to be
more of a sincere beat.

"Let's work on what is this relationship
between these two people about."

Logan...

in The Void you can be what you are.

I just wanna be free.

[Levy] Ryan and I both think a lot about

what makes the heart
underneath the laughs.

I know I turn everything into a joke,
but I care.

Just wanna matter.
I wanna show my girl that I matter.

I... I need to matter.

Wade has never been the world-saving type.

As he says in his own words,
he messes people up for money.

Sometimes he does the right thing
in spite of himself.

But we wanted big stakes
for Deadpool & Wolverine,

and world-saving stakes.

And yet, Wade's world is nine people.

It's been a challenging few years.

Haven't seen you guys in a while.

Been through a lot.

But I'm happy.

You know, and that's...

because of each and every one of you.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is...

how proud I am, how grateful I am...

to be standing in a room...

with every single person I love.

[Levy] We knew that the movie
needed to be anchored in stakes.

You're gonna Old Yeller my universe?

In your parlance, yes.

And if you're Wade Wilson,

the stakes are not, "I'm going to do
the noble thing and save the universe."

It's, "I'm going to do
the thing I am compelled to do,

"which is to save my friends,
because my friends are my world."

Deadpool realizes he's got
to find some way to fix this.

He thinks he can replace the Anchor Being
with another Wolverine.

I'll do it.

Wise choice.
The Sacred Timeline's happy to have you.

I was talking about finding the Wolverine

and breaking your f*cking nose.

[groans]

[Wade] Logan.

[Dean Zimmerman] In the script,
we find a few Wolverine variants.

Oh, my God. The legends are true.

When we put it together,
it almost wanted to be this montage.

But we didn't have enough pieces
to make it a montage.

So it wasn't until we showed Shawn like,
"Here's what we're thinking."

Then all of a sudden, it's like,

"Well, let's get the John Byrne
brown and tan costume.

"Let's get Wolverine on the cross.

"Let's get Cavillrine."

- [Reid] Old Man Logan.
- Old Man Logan.

We hit some, like,
real deep-cut comic fans

to start digging out these Logan variants
that existed over time.

[Zimmerman] And we were listening,
paying attention.

The support from the studio is unwavering

'cause the John Byrne, the big classic,
iconic image of the comic book,

is brown and tan costume, claws out,

and you see Hulk in the reflection.

"Okay, so can we have Hulk?"

Marvel, "Sure."

[Reynolds] So many late-game saves
and ideas and thoughts

and collaborations
came from all over the place.

I don't care whose idea it is.

Let's make this the best thing
we could possibly do.

Comic accurate short king.

Beautiful. But, unfortunately,
a reluctant pass.

[Reid] Shawn and Ryan are also very aware

that what the fans really want
in these situations

are recreations of things
that are iconic to them.

So, let's make them look like
the cover that they saw.

So there's a respect there
to the material, the source material.

And then, at the same time, it's like

we're contrasting it with Huey Lewis,
The Power of Love.

- From Back to the Future.
- Yeah.

Which they had to go through...

- Incredibly.
- Their own mountain to secure, but...

Yeah, Shawn called Spielberg and Zemeckis.

And the ungettable get we're getting.

It's just this beautiful marriage
of pop culture.

This one looks promising.

I need you to come with me right now.

Look, lady, I'm not interested.

The paradigms for Deadpool & Wolverine
were the great two-hander road trips.

That's Midnight Run,
Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

In some weird way, it's Rain Man.

It's about two people stuck on a quest,

who in no normal circumstances
would choose to spend a minute together.

Now they've got to spend days.

You mind putting your mask back on?

It's super hard to eat while wearing it.

It's super hard to eat when you're not.

[Jackman] I'd always felt
that this is a dynamic

that would be so much fun to play.

They call me "The Merc with the Mouth."

They don't call me "The Merc
with the Sage and Timely Counsel."

[groans]

One more word.

And I know the fans would love it.

Gubernatorial.

[grunting and groaning]

It's such a great opposing force,
you know, for Deadpool.

[groans, gasps]

What you thinkin'?

[Wernick] We've always wanted,
you know, that perfect straight man.

And yet, I wouldn't say
Wolverine is a straight man

as much as he is...

He's a lunatic.

Hey.

- Oh, Christ.
- [Levy] Cut.

It has this innate potential
for something emotional.

How do relationships evolve,
including ones that start with hatred?

In my world, you're, um... [clears throat]

You're well regarded.

Yeah, well, not in mine.

- They don't like me much in mine either.
- You don't say.

The stress I had
as one of the writers of the movie

was finding the access point
into Wolverine,

that, one, allows audiences to connect
with a character

that they've known
for more than two decades,

but also does something different
with the character

that hasn't yet been done.

In the first script that we wrote,
Hugh sent us a 10-minute voice memo.

Which I don't recommend,
sending a 10-minute voice memo to anyone.

But the idea that
he was the worst Wolverine

is the thing that came
of Hugh's voice memo.

It was such a great access point for us

'cause you not only have
the worst Wolverine,

but you have a Wolverine that is finally,
after 24 years, wearing the yellow suit,

you know, wandering around set
like Admiral Banana.

So what made you finally commit
to wearing an honest-to-God costume?

Mine's red so they can't see me bleed.

I see how yellow could be useful too.

[Jackman] When I got in the yellow
and blue, I knew it would work.

The thing that I'd been worried about
was unfounded.

Anything about the suit

somehow in real life,
as opposed to in the comic book,

would make him look too cartoon-y

or just garish or over-the-top
or something. No.

[Reynolds] I remember that first day
that Hugh and I were both in the suits.

We walked down this, like,
catwalk thing in the TVA,

and a gentleman named Billy Lawless,

who's in charge of helping me
get my suit on each and every day,

'cause the suit
is its own feat of engineering,

when he saw both Deadpool and Wolverine
walking down that catwalk,

he said it was the best day of his life.

[chuckling] And I was like...

I was like,
"You have a son though, Billy."

And he said, "Yes.
My son's name is Logan."

Twenty-four years since I first did this.

[man] It wasn't!

But the fans have been asking for this
for 24 years.

Oh, f*ck it. Excuse me.

- Oh, yeah.
- [laughter]

[Jackman] It felt amazing.

I felt more grounded, deeper connected
than I ever had before in the 24 years.

And the suit had
a lot to do with that, I think.

Trust me, kid, I'm no hero.

Well, that suit says different.

Do you like it?

I was astonished at how
we never tried it, never looked at it.

But when I see it and when I see it
particularly with that cowl...

Holy sh*t.

You save the good stuff
for special occasions?

k*lling mostly.

I feel more than ever before
me, Hugh Jackman, is lost, gone.

It's just Wolverine.

Listen to me.
Now, this is Sabretooth, all right?

Twenty years in the making.

You cannot take this guy.

Do not go for the head.

You guys got no grappling game.

Okay, good luck and Godspeed.

[Jackman] The suit's tight,
it pulls you down.

It's actually, weirdly, really good
in some ways for doing the action,

makes you very coiled.

But the motion, it's hard to move.
It's hard to get your elbow...

like, literally getting
your arms above here.

[Levy] That's impossible.
No, that's not graceful.

What about... And the other hand's worse?

That is very close.

But we did some amazing
action sequences in this,

one of which is the longest
I've ever done in my life.

[Levy] So we are here
in the lovely Burnham Beeches.

We're in the UK and we're sh**ting

what we effectually refer to
as the van fight.

This idea came out in the earliest,
as I recall,

the first draft of the script.

The idea that audiences expect
the mother of all fights

between Wolverine and Deadpool,

But what if we do it in a way
that's unexpected?

What if we do it inside the confines
of a lovely late model Honda Odyssey?

I'm gonna fight you now.

[laughing, snorting]

Oh, are you?

[Jackman] Shawn understands this thing
where you must be ahead of the audience.

The ideas must keep elevating.

They must keep changing and evolving.

[Alex] This is what's really unique
about Shawn and Ryan.

They're never married to an idea.

If there is a way
of telling a better story,

they are open for this idea.

I don't know how any one director
or one producer or one writer or anyone

does anything in the singular sense,
'cause you just need so much help.

Is it too much just to f*cking run into it
like you're tackling the car?

Like you're ramming it.

Either ramming it
or just head into it or something.

There's a part of Wolverine
that loves a fight.

Like, there's a part of him
never more alive than than in a fight.

[Levy] Yes, yes.

And doesn't mind a headbutt, like...

Yeah. Maybe that's what this this is, too.

It's like
when it gives that beat, you know,

like the "Violence is our love language."

Boom!

[Jackman] When I first was pitched
that scene, Shawn showed it to me,

we were on a plane together.

And he actually videoed me.

There was a video of me
watching it for the first time.

I'm literally crying hysterically.

It was just the most genius thing
I'd ever seen.

And I loved the scene as the lead-up.

A road trip with the most
annoying person of your life.

And finally, he snaps.

[grunting]

We are just getting started.

[grunting and groaning]

[Levy] By virtue of being R-rated,

it's an opportunity to make an MCU movie

with a degree of edge

and comedic subversiveness.

[Cottle] With regards to action,
any normal Marvel movie,

you have to work out

how many headbutts you can do

or how much blood you can see.

And then you walk onto this set
and it's just...

It's just...

[screams, shrieks]

You are yanking this thing so hard,
you f*cking jump back,

- spin around and I'm holding it.
- [Levy] Ah, right.

And then my feet go through the sunroof.

All in one move.

We slide back... Boom!

[grunting, yelling]

It's two people fighting who can't die.

It's amazing.

Once you get his head to the side...

- Yeah.
- ...and you're doing these

and I see the bumper sticker,
I'm gonna cut it sooner.

You're gonna have to be
quite the jackhammer.

[Reynolds] Ha-ha!

[Jackman] Every bit of action
is so inventive and unique

and funny and brutal
and stuff you've never seen before.

[groaning]

And it's so hard to do that.

[Levy whooping and laughing]

Yeah!

[man] Amazing.

We knew that we wanted
a really formidable villain,

and we started talking about something
I had never heard about,

an omega-level mutant.

And this character of Cassandra Nova,
who is Charles Xavier's twin.

And around that time

I was watching The Crown with Emma Corrin,

and I thought,
"Wow. This actor is incredible."

And I went to England
and I saw Emma in a stage production.

And we went out to dinner afterwards
and I knew that this was Cassandra Nova.

So we literally never had a backup,
never even had a second idea.

And thankfully, Emma said, "Yes."

Not what I was expecting.

Don't worry, I won't judge you.

I'm not Charles.

They said, "Forget everything
you've ever seen or heard about villains.

"Don't treat this as a villain."

And I remember
the first reference Ryan gave me

was Christoph Waltz
in Inglourious Basterds.

He doesn't have to act evil
because he's wearing that uniform.

It says it for him,
and it's ten times more sinister.

You're that scary, huh?

The TVA certainly thought so.

They sent me here before I could walk.

So that's what we went for
because I've got the bald head

and the collar and the villain
silhouette and these elongated fingers.

That are just enough to kind of see

and you kind of don't.

What's going on in here?

It's all saying "evil."

So then it's really fun
to be unpredictable.

There's something off-kilter
that makes you sort of lean in.

Yeah, Johnny told us. You're a "psychotic,
megalomaniacal as*h*le."

His words, not mine.
Hellbent on domination and pain.

- You said all that about me?
- No!

[Reynolds] Chris and I have a history

of trading cameos in movies,
and he was just so in.

Man, this is great. Come on.

[Reynolds] Because I wrote
this setup for him,

where Deadpool talks about him
as the ultimate trash talker.

That it's not me. You know,
he's the sh*t talker, extreme,

my hat's off to this guy.

And in the movie, you're like, "Wait.

"But he doesn't talk like that."

Deadpool's just getting another guy
k*lled, which Deadpool is very good at.

Not my favorite Chris.

So I wrote this tag for Chris.

Initially, I just wrote it
to trick and manipulate Chris

into saying yes.

"But there's also this scene."

And then it became something
that was really funny, actually,

I was, "This has to be in the movie."

And Chris only agreed to do the movie
as long as that tag stays in the movie.

Which I don't blame him at all.

If the last thing I do in this godforsaken
c*m-gutter existence...

is light that f*ck-box on fire,
I still won't die happy.

[chuckling] Holy sh*t, girl. You crazy.

That's right, Wade.
I won't be happy until...

I've urinated
on her freshly barbecued corpse

and husk-f*cked the charred remains,

while gargling Juggernaut's juggernuts.

- Wow! 'Kay.
- And you can quote me.

[Jacobson] Here we are
in the hero hideout.

This hideout is comprised
of various variants

and Easter eggs from the Marvel universe.

Where are we?

No clue, but... I like it here.

Fans may recognize this amazing bed,

which was where the Hulk
slept in Thor: Ragnarok in Sakaar.

We've got this table
from Carol's spaceship from The Marvels,

and Ray Chan did an incredible job
with this space.

There are so many different details.

[Chan] So the brief from
Shawn and Wendy was,

"We'd like to put in some
Easter eggs for our fans."

One particular set caught my eye.

A 24-foot high sculpt of Wanda,

which was used in Doctor Strange 2.

And it was used in a temple,
and the temple was about 32 feet high,

and I thought, "Well, I will take that
sculpt and lay it into the ceiling."

So it became the ceiling of the hideout.

It's really been thought out.
Where would each person sleep?

What would their possessions be?

They live in the Void.
What have they scavenged?

Look at you... all.
You must be the others.

[Chan] Just to see those heroes,

and they are heroes, in the set
was just incredible.

I received a message from Ryan.

And he said, "Give me a call."

I thought it was kind of odd.

I said, "What could this guy
be calling me for?"

He revealed to me that he was thinking

about me joining the team
for this Deadpool.

I said, "Well, hey,
if you can work it out, yeah."

Wesley is Blade to me
and ushered in a whole era.

I was born ready.

[Reynolds] This is a character
that Wesley, in large part, created.

And took risks back then
that hadn't really been done.

There's only ever been one Blade,

and there's only ever gonna be one Blade.

Yeah, dog. Let's go.

It really does feel I'm the radio winner

they let play background for a day.

I've been dancing around Gambit
for close to 20 years now.

You don't have to ask Channing Tatum
to play Gambit.

I mean, Channing's been trying to get
a Gambit movie made

for as long as I was trying
to get a Deadpool movie.

I mean, we were at Comic Con
together in 2016

when Fox was going to make that movie.

If you don't know what it's like to see...

Shawn I've met a couple of times
to possibly direct Gambit

when I was attached to it at Fox.

So they called me about this one,
and I couldn't even believe it.

I thought they might have been
teasing me or joking me,

it was like a practical joke.

I'd have done truly anything to actually
walk onto the screen as Gambit

just even one time.

It's actually really lovely
to step back into Elektra.

I played Elektra in 2004.

So I had not picked up a sai

other than to show off
for my kids' friends.

Like, "I'm a ninja."

I hadn't done anything like that
in years and years and years.

Da, da, stab. And then when I do this,
I'm driving us back.

Bringing Elektra into this
Deadpool world has been a total trip.

[grunting]

[Reynolds] It was wonderful
to see Dafne Keen

as Laura a little bit older and wiser

and now we get to really see
what the Logan character means to her.

I got to grow up because of you.

Finding this new, more mature, older Laura

was very interesting because
she's still intrinsically, nature wise,

she's still that wild, feral character,

but also, at the same time,
she's now grown,

and she's got more management
of her emotions in a way.

Don't make me regret it.

To me, it seems like
because I played her at such a young age,

she's sort of embedded in me,
and she's been waiting to come out again.

X-23, what's it gonna be?

The name's Laura.

- Let's f*cking go.
- Let's f*cking go!

This is, by the way, the most mental shot

in a comic book movie of all time.

It's about to get more mental!

I didn't want to stop yesterday.

Everybody was tired.
I was, like, "Do we have to go home?

"Do I have to take it off?"

I didn't see this costume coming

because when we were planning
to do the other Gambit,

he wasn't in the X-Men yet,
so he wouldn't have had this full armor.

And then this, we just basically decided

we're just going to do exactly
what he looks like in the comics.

Picked the picture and the magicians that
work on this movie just figured it out.

This costume is a little different
from the one we had before.

It's less shiny.

Yeah, it's less sparkly.

I don't have the same drip
that I had in the other ones.

Maybe these two are our chance.

To be remembered.

The way we deserve.

An ending.

Legacy.

[Garner] A lot of superheroes wear red,
but, of course, Deadpool is in red.

So Elektra's gone a bit more berry
like a gray berry, which I love.

So it's a different costume,
a lot less skin.

Elektra always had a lot more
midriff showing,

which... we wouldn't need that now.

That's not necessary.
Elektra's had three kids.

Those characters are all
really, really important,

and some of my favorite moments
in the movie

are standing shoulder to shoulder
with those guys.

And they were amazing
because we had six and a half usable hours

of daylight each and every day.

And I remember sitting with them
in my trailer before we shot,

and I said, "I'm gonna ask you guys
something that I would...

"I feel sheepish asking you,

"but unless
you have to go to the bathroom,

"can everyone just stay on set?

"Because, man, we need to
go, go, go and not stop!"

And every one of them
was just incredible about that.

They stayed on set and were just ready
to go and stretched out

and primed to do the action
at a moment's notice.

Shawn and Ryan have dreamed of this moment

of all of us coming together
to fight for them

and help them accomplish their goals.

And to watch Shawn and Ryan

get so excited about their dream
becoming a reality in front of their eyes

is really awesome.

- Cut.
- Yeah!

We have waited so long for it
and I'm so grateful.

And it was everything we dreamed of.

It was more than everything we dreamed of,

like, literally 50 times better
than I ever dreamed.

- Well done, well done.
- [Garner] Oh, my goodness.

[Levy] We are in Ant-Man Arena,

as we affectionately call
Cassandra Nova's hideout.

Her fortress. Her compound.

This is a giant Ant-Man

that is half-buried
in the desert of the Void,

and within its skeletal arms,
Cassandra Nova has set up camp.

[Corrin] They built the entire arena,

and there were the vehicles
that actually worked

and the ramp that turns into steps
that I first come down.

It was all there and all functional.
It was mind-blowing.

"Right there, in the amphitheater
of his arms."

That's this set.

- What?
- Yeah.

[Levy] The very notion
that Cassandra's compound

would be in a giant Ant-Man skeleton.

That was in a first draft of this script,
and it was such a weird arbitrary, random,

idiosyncratic, messed-up, cool idea,

because it's so weird, that it stuck.

Obviously, I start with giant Ant-Man
from the costume department.

We scanned the costume,
and then we've magnified the armor.

So we replicated his costume
exponentially.

Just even, just to give
the arena some interest.

I pitched this idea to Shawn
back in the day

almost like when Mad Max first entered
Tina Turner's Thunderdome

and you had
all of these henchmen screaming.

We have the meats!

[Chan] So we embraced
an internal structure within the arms

so you could have multi levels
and framework

for the camera to pass behind

and make the third act final sequence
in there much more interesting.

I mean, it's just powerful.

One more.

[Chan] Even the vehicles.

The brief was to come up
with this caravan of vehicles.

I sort of riffed off the idea
of things being jettisoned

or dropped into the Void
that I could make a hybrid of

Marvel established vehicles
and call them variants

and then just changing them slightly.

[Levy] When you're a director,

shots come to you
one of two ways in my experience.

Sometimes you walk on the set

and the shots come hard
and you've got to kind of walk around

and work to picture it.

When a set is rich in detail,
depth, texture

in the way that this is,
the shots come easy.

And so my biggest stress today
is having the time to do all of the shots

that are inspired by this incredible set.

And the fact that we built it for real,

because once again,
the whole approach with this movie

is practical locations, real builds,
so that you, as an audience,

feel like you're watching
and experiencing something real.

- [groaning]
- [exclaiming]

[Deadpool groaning] That feels like a Kia.

[Jacobson] Today, we are on what we call
the New York Street.

But neither Deadpool movie ever declares
whether Deadpool lives in New York

and there are a lot of shots of Vancouver.

So this is kind of an ND urban street
where Deadpool lives.

We have built this city street here
on the back lot of Pinewood in London,

and I'm kind of astonished by the level
of authenticity and the details.

For instance,
putting in metal plates into the street.

There's no reason for that,
other than the fact that those details,

the filth that accumulates on the curb...
all these little details

all these little details that allow us
to feel like we're in that world.

Why did we build this world?
You might ask.

Because Wade lives
in a nondescript North American city

and we're filming in the UK,

but also because this sequence

that we're filming over
the next couple of weeks,

has some of the most spoilery
confidential plot twists

in Deadpool 3.

And we figured that if we go out
when we do it on a real city street,

we'll definitely be photographed.

So here we are.

We're set and background... Action!

On this backlot set, we were sort of
shoehorned into the only available space.

That dictated
the square footage of our set build,

which informed the layout, ultimately,

because George, the DP, had an opinion
on the sun direction and the sun path.

So we were already working
with an existing space,

plus the sun path
dictated the skeleton of the set.

But then I decided, "Right, okay,

"Let's make one end more interesting."

And I look back at The Warriors,
and I imagine this whole scene

where the Deadpool Corps
were coming from every single street.

And so that's hence Five Points,
what we call Five Points,

that's how Five Points was born.

[Reynolds] Hey, guys, looking good.

Deadpool Prime here.

Can we just be done?

When Ryan first asked me
to direct this Deadpool,

I started by reading
a shitload of the comics.

And the Corps, the Deadpool Corps

was such an early
and compelling idea to me.

And I really wanted to find
a way to integrate them

into what would become
this and my Deadpool movie.

So they're walking, walking,
and when we hear, "Hold!" they all stop.

Hold!

Told you there were
a lot of Deadpools over there.

We started off with Nicepool,
which was Ryan's alter ego.

That's the first thing that we worked on.

He is just this sort of
more bucked-up version.

A more beautiful version of Deadpool.

Where's your mask?

You guys are seeing this, right?

And he's got these long flowing locks,
and he's sort of a Zen character.

I'm so sorry about that.
This place is beautiful.

Boy, do I love playing Nicepool.

He's just so manufactured and so nice

that by the time his head
is just blown clean off of his body,

you're breathing a slight sigh of relief.

I have low bone density,
and I have to keep my face safe.

He's like the box fresh,
"20% better than normal" Deadpool.

So he's got all the full chrome,
gold-plated everything. Shiny inserts.

Are those gold-plated,
.50 caliber Desert Eagle pistoleros?

[Nicepool] 'Course.

To match my ear huggie.

Everything is bespoke.

There's nothing on his suit
that did exist before this.

Even the material is screen-printed.

Everything's painted, covered,
made from scratch.

Within the costume department,
we've made 30 variants,

and then we've made
lots of specialist variants like 2099.

We made Ladypool, Zenpool, Cowboypool.

[Jacobson] Kidpool, Headpool and Dogpool.

And then from there, we just let
everyone's imagination run wild.

Dogpool is one of my favorites.

We did a search for the ugliest dog
in the world, and sure enough,

there was Peggy, in the UK,
where we were sh**ting.

I love where inspiration
can come out of nowhere.

I was watching some horrible show
about fairies with my 6-year-old,

and there was a character with these
goggles, a fairy with these googles,

and these huge magnified eyes
inside the goggles.

So I remember seeing it and freaking out
and taking a video of it,

sending it to our
visual effects supervisors,

Swen Gillberg and Lisa Marra, and saying,

"In the third act when Dogpool comes back,

"can we put goggles on Dogpool

"but make them look like they are
the most intense prescription ever?"

And they said, "Yes, we could,
but it's going to cost a lot of money."

I did mention this is our Baby Yoda.

Sweet little puppy.

[Levy] What's so fun about today is,

because I've been working for
the last two months with Rob Simonsen

on the score to this movie,

I'm playing the score and the Deadpool
theme that's been written for this movie

while we're sh**ting this movie,

and in turn, it's giving the actors
and the performers

a visceral sense of the vibe

and just the bad-a*s attitude
of this Deadpool Corps.

Deadpool, musically, can be
the most irreverent,

and you can lean into superhero moments

but you can also have
a lot of fun with it.

I wanted to give some new looks
with being pretty beat-driven

in some ways, not just using electronics,

but really having big beats
that could really drive it.

Also, orchestral flavors for superhero
stuff that needs to feel like

this is classic Marvel
orchestral superhero fare,

because a lot of it is Deadpool's
imagining of himself

in the Marvel Universe.

So the perspective of the score
is often from Deadpool's perspective

of how he feels as he's getting
into the Marvel Universe.

Are you ready?

I get to k*ll a hundred yous?

f*ck yeah, I'm ready.

[Cottle] The oner, as we call it,

is something that's been discussed
from very, very early on.

It shouldn't be elemental and sharp.

It should have dancer flow.

I think you can do brutal and flow
at the same time.

- Yeah, I'd love the kills to be brutal.
- Yeah.

Ryan said to me, "I have been
dreaming about this shot for..."

I think he said seven or nine years.

He's like, from the shot, to the framing,
to the song, to the action.

He's like, "We are doing it."
I was, like, "Okay."

We're just gonna sh**t and go for it.
So lots of energy. Enjoy it.

[Cottle] When you commit to a oner,
you are committing to what that shot is.

So whenever you sh**t
big action sequences,

you're always running a couple of cameras.

You can cut somewhere else
or if a punch misses or if a kick misses,

it's like, "We'll jump
to this camera for that,

"or we'll look at this expl*si*n
for that moment."

But when you do a oner
and you're just there for,

I think it's just over two minutes,

there's nowhere to go.

It was daunting.

[grunting]

One of the stunt guys showed me
a version of the video game from 1995.

He goes, "Look," and it's literally like

Wolverine fighting hundreds of people
and going along in a oner shot,

and I was like, "Who'd have thought?"

[Cottle] The idea behind it
was we were going to sh**t it

on a motion-controlled rig,
so we would lock the camera off

and we would do a couple of passes,

and then we would bake
the action into the passes

and then overlay them in passes.

But all the action would be practical
in camera

and then we would just
have to work out how we would layer in

the next layer of stunt people.

Can you now mix what we just shot
with our hero from Section 3, please?

The only thing was that
we only had a three-hour window a day

where the light would be
in the correct position to make it work.

So our gameplan was to turn up
at 7:00 a.m. Still pitch black.

We would rehearse from 7:00 till 10:00.

We would take an early lunch,

we'd then take an hour to get
all the stunties ready as Deadpools.

And then we would sh**t
from 11:30 till 2:30, I think,

and we would just get Section 1 one day.

And then once we'd got that section,

we'd spend the rest of the day
rehearsing for the next day,

come in, and then it just went on
like that.

Oh, there you go. Wow!

Yes! Yes, we got it.

I've been doing this for a long time.

I enjoy the challenge.

I enjoy the mental challenge

of working with so many
different stunt performers,

doing choreography,
having the camera there

and trying to do a shot
that I'd never done before.

And it was a challenge that I loved.

- Yeah!
- [cheers and applause]

Really well done.

I feel really good about that.

Zombies, get up!

- [baby giggling]
- [groaning]

I guess these ones regenerate.

[Peter] Deadpools!

Stand down.

I loved Peter in Deadpool 2,

so the idea was not just
having him in our movie,

but we knew we wanted him
to play a critical role.

[Delaney] Peter in the suit is insane,

and it's as insane
as me trying to literally put on a suit

that had previously
been worn by Ryan Reynolds.

Because... [chuckles]
our bodies are different shapes.

One thing that was nice is that
when I first met Shawn, the director,

he was, like,
"Oh, no. I thought you were fatter."

And so that was nice to hear.

So they did have to make a fat suit.

And at first they overdid it.

And people were like, "No, God, no,
it's not absurd." You know?

And so they had to shave it down.

I'm the pudgy, middle-aged guy
in orthopedic sandals

who looks in the mirror
and sees something more.

I see a guy who shows up
for a mother-fudging friend.

[Reynolds] He just embodies just this

sort of Ned Flanders
everyman kind of thing.

But Rob himself is actually
incredibly subversive and dark as f*ck.

So he's kind of always
a fun character to play with

and a fun character to write

because he embraces those weird,
subversive things.

Peter isn't somebody
that was born in the comic books

that people have been saying,
"Hey, I wonder when we'll see Peter."

He's just sort of an original thing,

but now he's kind of, I don't know,
backed up into the Marvel Universe.

Sort of reverse-engineered,
so that's pretty cool.

[all chanting] Peter. Peter. Peter.

[Delaney] So when you say he's part of
the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

you're not lying, which is really strange.

Enjoy my Peter.

So the power room is where
the big finale happens.

[Reynolds] Ray created a world
unlike anything I've ever seen.

He just kind of invented things
that were just second to none.

The set is shot mostly practically
with all the effects built in.

There's water involved.
There's vortexes and electricity and fire.

Third act Marvel money splooge, activate!

The power room
was a 1905 ventilation shaft,

an abandoned condemned space,
which the TVA then commandeered

and retrofitted
the power source, the plasma core

and the anti-plasma.

The Time Ripper, I was speechless.

They've made these arm gauntlets.

I put my arms in and they're
properly heavy and they've, everything,

every bit of light and wiring

and nut and bolt and screw is like...

Yeah, it's incredible.

[Chan] I probably had about 20 different
concept designs for this.

In my head, the Ripper combines the two
plasmas into this huge atomic b*mb.

I don't understand.

How are you two still alive?

You were right.
One of us would have been k*lled.

But you put
a Deadpool and a Wolverine together...

make 'em hold hands
while listening to Madonna...

indestructible, m*therf*cker.

When you approach the end
of a long movie sh**t,

you're so tired.

You're so tired.

Your body is so unhealthy.

Your brain is so exhausted
that, quite frankly,

you're kind of looking forward
to getting back to your regular life.

But on this movie,
it's a really ambivalent ending

because I've gotten to come to work,

be around and collaborate with
my two actual best buddies for months.

This is a sign of true love,
that I'm letting someone other than me

cross off the storyboard panels
that we've completed.

This is real brotherhood right here.

I've been making this movie
for almost a year.

I've been developing this movie with Ryan
for two years.

It's a long road to walk

and I never take for granted
that I'm walking it alongside brothers.

Quite often you look back on a job.

It may even be years after,
and you realize how lucky you were.

I knew this before we went in.

I knew it on day one.

There's a photo of the three of us
together taken on the very first day.

That was my wrap gift to both of them.

We knew that
for the next 70 days of filming,

or however many months,

that we were getting
to do our dream characters

with our dream collaborators,

dream crew with a dream story and film.

It felt like there was a destiny to it.

It felt like it was always meant to be,
and we savored it.

And I have never been so happy to wake up
in the morning and go to a set in my life.

- We have SAG cards now.
- [laughter]

Thank you.

[Reynolds] Any movie where you, you know,
you get friends together

that know each other very well,

you're kind of born on third base.

No movie's ever exemplified that for me
more than Deadpool & Wolverine.

And it was beautiful.

I get why he did


[Levy] There's this line
that Ryan and I wrote,

in one of the final scenes
between Wolverine and Deadpool.

And Deadpool says to Wolvie,

"Hey, I waited a long time
for this team-up.

"And I'll tell you something.
It was worth the wait."