Kevin Feige Turned Down Ryan Reynolds’ Initial ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Pitch

Among the films that arouse the imagination of fans are Deadpool and Wolverine; ever since Disney acquired Fox and mutants came home to Marvel Studios, fans have been concerned about the R-rated nature of the Merc with a Mouth, Hugh JackmanWolverine is part of it, and what the third iteration of the franchise might look like has been a point of contention. All those feelings ended though when it was announced that the feature under the new banner would retain its rating. But the road to finding the right story to tell was not easy Ryan Reynolds and the team

Initially, Reynolds envisioned a Rashomon-back story about “Wolverine and Deadpool and something they had together, but told from three completely different perspectives,” the actor told Empire Magazine in a new interview. “It was a way to make a large-scale film in a very small way.” However, the head of Marvel Kevin Feige rejected the idea.

Ryan Reynolds offered 18 treatments for 'Deadpool and Wolverine'

“The truth is, I wasn't sure how to bring Deadpool in yet,” Feige admits. Surely, it wouldn't have been an easy decision for the studio that at the time had ended the Infinity Saga on a high note with Avengers: Endgame. Also, fans' love for Deadpool and the mutants and the anticipation of seeing them in the MCU needs to be served properly, Feige explained,

“I was thinking a lot about how to bring in the mutants and the X-Men [the MCU], and I thought it had to be more than playing the hits. But the truth is, Ryan is an idea machine. So maybe he pitched it to me, but he also pitched 25 other thoughts and ideas.”

After initial rejection, Reynolds went back to the drawing board and “I wrote about 18 different treatments,” he recalls. He further revealed, “Some of them almost like a Sundance film, with a budget of less than $10 million, using the IP in a way that they hadn't used before, and I presented films more big and I introduced things in between.” And probably one of those ideas stuck in the studio. Fans had been waiting for Deadpool and Wolverine to team up for a while, so once “Hugh put his hand up, two months later we were getting ready. It was honestly one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever seen,” says the executive producer Wendy Jacobson.

Deadpool and Wolverine hits theaters July 26. You can learn more about the film with our guide here.