It's no secret that Deadpool has marked a rather explosive new franchise for both Ryan Reynolds [1] and 20th Century Fox. Both the first film and its 2018 follow-up raked in epic ticket sales, thrilled audiences, and gave diehard fans the raunchy R-rated antihero they were so desperately craving. With such incredible success, you'd think a third Deadpool film was a no-brainer, but it turns out the situation isn't so cut and dried. Luckily for us, a new and very tiny tidbit from Reynolds himself is giving us a sliver of hope to hang onto.
As a refresher, Reynolds previously revealed that he wasn't sure about a third movie [2]. "I don't know that there would be a Deadpool 3. I really don't. I feel like the character, in order for him to function properly within his own universe, you need to take everything away from him. I don't think that you can keep doing that," Reynolds admitted during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. At that time, Reynolds hinted that the hero could potentially pop up in an "X-Force" focused movie, which would basically be an Avengers kind of deal that is instead set in the X-Men world with X-Men characters. But, you know, same concept: big multihero team-up focused on one truly dastardly bad guy. Just this week, though, Reynolds offered an update to a different tune.
In January, 20th Century Fox suddenly announced that Deadpool 2 would be released in China [3]. Previously, the film did not meet the country's strict regulations for film censorship, nor did the original Deadpool. However, it turns out the PG-13 cut of the film [4], called Once Upon a Deadpool, made it through, thus paving the way for a Deadpool China release. To celebrate the occasion, Reynolds apparently blew off an arm surgery and flew to China.
Here's where it gets juicy: during his visit, Reynolds revealed that he and his team had, in fact, begun work on Deadpool 3! Reynolds reportedly said they are "looking to go in a completely different direction." He also added that "often, they reboot or change a character maybe like four movies too late." Sounds like he found a way to work through that whole "not taking everything away from him every time" conundrum, and we could be meeting a very different kind of Deadpool in round three.
By the sound of it, the team may be in preproduction stages for a third movie, meaning they could feasibly break ground and get to work sometime this year. And with that in mind, we could be getting the movie as soon as 2020! Keep your fingers crossed, folks. Deadpool shan't be out of our lives for too long.