It’s no secret that Deadpool‘s first live-action appearance wasn’t in his record-breaking, R-rated solo outing. The Merc With A Mouth first cropped up in the critically-derided X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a spin-off prequel focusing on Wolvie’s days before joining Professor X’s crew. You’d be hard pushed to find anyone who enjoys that film’s version of Deadpool. It’s not loyal to the character and it utterly wasted Ryan Reynolds’ gift of the gab.
While you might think Origins director Gavin Hood would be… a bit pissed that Tim Miller’s take on the chatty merc struck gold, it turns out he’s just as happy as the rest of us. In an interview with Cinema Blend, Hood showered Miller and co. with praise for their loyal, winning take on Deadpool:
“I think the character works so well now, because the character is allowed to be who the character really is, unencumbered by, you know, PG-13 requirements and a great deal of marketing debate. I think the fact that the filmmakers kind of made that film below the radar — and I happen to know a little bit, only because my production designer from Ender’s Game, Sean Haworth… was the designer on Deadpool. I remember when he was making the film, it was just a little bit more below the radar initially. And more credit to the filmmakers and to Ryan [Reynolds], that they took control of their character and got on and let Ryan do the film. Deadpool is a motor mouth, foul mouth character, and it’s very difficult with these big movies to, when you have to work within certain parameters that are set by [the studio].
“I think Ryan is fantastic and I think Sean, again, who I worked with on Ender’s Game, as a production design job… I’m so thrilled for him, because there’s a huge talent and Ryan is a huge talent and he has been able to just bring out his essence as an actor in a role that he really loved.”
Hood goes on to say that initially, he hadn’t planned for Deadpool to even appear in Wolverine’s prequel. That decision was made by the studio:
“You know, when he did the little cameo bit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it was exactly what we’ve been talking about. It was the studio attempting to plug in a few characters and test the waters. But now [Reynolds] gets to make his own movie and he did it with great courage and with the full force of his personality, so he deserves every success.”
You’d expect he might be a tad bitter that Miller’s team were given more freedom than he was. So it’s encouraging to hear this type of support from one filmmaker to another. As for the man in question – Deadpool – you can see more of him in his current R-rated incarnation when the Blu-ray hits shelves next month.