With Deadpool and Wolverine only three days away, it’s impossible to divorce the film from the idea of alternate possibilities.
Reports are flying left, right, and centre about who was in the film, who could’ve been in the film, that Ryan Reynolds had 20 different ideas for the concept, and that Kevin Feige initially told Hugh Jackman 'don't come back'.
As such, the film so easily could’ve been completely different.
In a recent press conference for the film, however, it was revealed we very nearly got a completely different film if not for one thing.
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The strikes.
Midway through the filming of Deadpool and Wolverine, SAG-AFTRA (Hollywood’s acting guild) announced they would be going on strike, halting production on the film ‘indefinitely’.
At a recent press conference, journalist Yasmine Kandil asked the cast about what benefits came from getting to halt the film halfway through production.
Reynolds responded, saying: “God. I mean, if you could, from a fiscal point of view, stop a movie right in the middle. Assess everything that you have, edit the hour of footage you have, put it together and then just zoom out…
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“One of the things that I realized I'm so lucky to have in this partnership with Shawn [Levy, the film’s director] and certainly this partnership with Hugh [Jackman], is this ability to pivot.”
He went on to say of the trio: “We’re just dumpster divers. We use every opportunity, good or bad to sort of tell the story.
“Even the constraints coming from the top down at Marvel we use to our own benefit.
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“So, man coming back after the strike. I mean, we had entire character arcs that changed.”
Director Shawn Levy went on to add: “One thing we talked a lot about was ‘you gotta listen to your movie’.
“Whatever your initial intentions were, listen to your movie, it's going to tell you what it wants to be.
“We edited the hour of the movie that we had shot. So we were able to sit and listen to our movie.”
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Emma Corrin, who plays the antagonist Cassandra Nova in the film, even said that the cast were sent a rough cut of the film.
While they had not yet began shooting, it allowed them to see full scenes already shot with notes saying ‘Cassandra stand-in here’.
They said: “It was incredible. I could see completely what the movie was.
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“Obviously you shoot out of chronological order all of the time. It's quite confusing when you have a first day or whatever, because you don't really know what you're catching up with and the place that you're at in the movie.
“I could literally see what you wanted her to be and what you needed her to be. In those moments in terms of this epic narrative arc that you created, it was incredible.”
Deadpool and Wolverine releases worldwide July 25.
Topics: Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Marvel, Film and TV, Deadpool and Wolverine
Michael Slavin