In years past, a Disney presentation at CinemaCon would be a rather family-friendly affair. Not so this year, with the raunchy, R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine taking center stage to show off extensive footage from project.
The Disney presentation began with a “silence your phone” PSA, with Deadpool and Wolverine in costume, talking about rumors for Secret Wars, the upcoming Avengers movie. But when Deadpool tried to explain his theories for the movie, he was interrupted by a cellphone in the audience. Finally, after being interrupted several times, Wolverine lost his temper and addressed the camera with plenty of F-bombs imploring people to turn off their phones.
Later, audiences got a full-fledged look at the movie that stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the title characters and deals with the multiverse. The footage was rife with double entendres aimed at Hollywood, as well as direct references to Marvel and Disney.
“It’s fucking awesome,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said to the crowd. He added he could say that because it’s an R-rated film — and proceeded to say the F-word a few more times.
Shawn Levy then came out to show off nine minutes of spoiler-free scenes. The Hollywood Reporter won’t delve too deep into what was shown, but it begins with Wade Wilson as a car salesman, retired from the superhero world. (Let’s just say he makes an oblique reference to his sexual preferences while trying to sell a car to a family.) It then transitions to the birthday party shown in a Super Bowl trailer, where Wade mentions a certain Marvel exec by name and a list of things he can’t show in the movie (including doing cocaine).
Later in the footage, Wade arrives at the Time Variance Authority, as shown in the Super Bowl trailer. It’s fair to say that the nine-minute clip of Deadpool & Wolverine drew the biggest laughter of the week. Feige said the footage was crafted by Levy and Reynolds specifically for the CinemaCon audience.
Marvel Studios is betting big on Deadpool & Wolverine, which opens July 26 and hails from director Levy. After years of putting three (or even four) films out annually, the studio is dialing back and putting all its chips on this movie. It marks Marvel Studios’ first R-rated project, and also the first franchise coming over from its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. (Fantastic Four, due out next year, will be the second.)
As Wade said in the footage: “I am the messiah. I am Marvel Jesus.”
