1) Deadpool (2016)
Casual moviegoers might not have been aware of the extent to which X-Men Origins: Wolverine did its characters a disservice, but the geek community certainly noticed. In addition to its terrible CGI and subpar story, the film tarnished the comic book legacy of many beloved characters. However, none compared with the travesty that was the film’s incomprehensible take on Deadpool, the fan-favorite anti-hero played by Ryan Reynolds. By the time the movie ended, the Merc with the Mouth bore zero resemblance to his comic book counterpart, enraging fans and spurring a movement to have the character done right on the big screen.
Deadpool finally arrived in theaters in 2016 after years of tireless effort on the part of Reynolds, director Tim Miller and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. One of the few films that is actually a spinoff of a spinoff, the R-rated Deadpool thankfully disregarded the previous depiction of the character and managed to stay incredibly reverent to the foul-mouthed, ultraviolent version seen in the comics.
Far more impressively, the film reached an unfathomably large audience, earning $760 million worldwide against a reported $58 million production budget. Considering that the movie nearly never happened at all, it’s remarkable to think that it now stands as the highest-grossing film in the X-Men series, outpacing far more expensive releases like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The release of Deadpool not only heralded a new era for Fox’s mutant franchise but for comic book films in general. Now that Miller’s spinoff – which already has a sequel on the way, much to the delight of fans – has proven that superhero cinema can take creative chances and embrace the source material in this way, there’s no telling where the genre may go in the years ahead. The upcoming third Wolverine solo film is reportedly targeting an R rating, and reports are running rampant that other projects may follow suit. Deadpool isn’t just a spinoff that proved successful; it’s a film that has surpassed the franchise that gave birth to it and changed the course of the industry’s future.