Everything Always: The One Thing Marvel Studios Would Not Let Deadpool & Wolverine Show On Screen

Shawn Levy has confirmed there was one specific thing Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige would not allow in Deadpool & Wolverine, and it is something Deadpool has done on screen in his earlier films. This did not come from an anonymous scoop or a rumor account. It came directly from the director himself in a recent interview with Total Film, which makes it official.

Before getting into what Levy actually said, I want to walk through why this matters, because for the first time in the six or seven years I have been chasing down Marvel scoops to their origin source, I started hearing about a supposed rift between Ryan Reynolds and Marvel Studios, specifically Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Feige, with behind the scenes drama that just did not seem to exist. People kept asking about it, but none of the credible sources I rely on, credible or not, had anything to say about it.

The rumored Ryan Reynolds and Marvel Studios rift that nobody could actually source

By all accounts, especially from forward facing figures like Shawn Levy, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios, and Ryan Reynolds, everyone was described as super pleased with how Deadpool had turned out and was being finished in post production. There was no behind the scenes drama and no rift between Reynolds, Feige and Marvel Studios that I could find evidence of. In fact, we now know that Feige actually doubled back and wants Deadpool and Wolverine involved with Avengers 5, and Shawn Levy has been given the offer to direct that movie.

Wherever these rift scoops were actually coming from, whoever was manufacturing them seemed to base it on the claim that Disney was watering Deadpool down, cutting jokes, and not allowing him to embrace his full R rating. That is just not true. What we did find out officially is the one thing Disney and Kevin Feige said was off limits for Deadpool and Wolverine, and there was at least exactly one case where they could not put something in the movie.

On the broader rumor mill, I would draw a real distinction between the scoopers I cover who have extensive track records, which is why I am comfortable giving them credence, and people who just sit at home and try to create drama by making things up. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Ryan Reynolds, Disney, Marvel drama that was apparently out there according to some people, it seems entirely false and completely made up. By all accounts, Marvel, Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds are all described as ecstatic about the movie and extremely excited for it to be released.

Shawn Levy on the early conversations about overt drug use that could not make the cut

The story broke in a Total Film article under the headline about Levy revealing there was one thing off the table in the MCU movie, with the outlet reporting that Deadpool & Wolverine may be Marvel Studios' first R rated feature, but that does not mean it could go all the way with some of its riskier jokes. Levy told Total Film, "I'm so wary of what I can say but certainly there were early conversations about overt drug use."

According to that same report, once that constraint was established, the solution became clear. Levy is quoted saying, "and then we thought it was an interesting conversation, let's actually write a dialogue in the scene about having had it." That conversation reportedly made it into one of the most recent trailer edits, in a scene between Blind Al and Deadpool, where the drug use is referenced in dialogue rather than shown on screen.

Deadpool has done a bunch of cocaine in his previous films, so this was definitely something Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios probably wanted to address right off the bat. There are two things you will never see in a Marvel movie no matter what. You will never see an actual sex scene on film, even with all the innuendo that showed up in something like She-Hulk or going back as far as the first Iron Man movie, they may cut around it with innuendo but there will not be an actual sex scene. You are also never going to see anybody overtly doing hard drugs on screen.

Why cutting overt drug use is not a sign of Marvel watering Deadpool down

It is not integral to the character that Deadpool has to do cocaine on screen in order to be Deadpool, and from the way Levy talks about it, it sounds like it was handled in a professional way. Feige said this is the one thing that could not happen, the team decided how to handle it by putting a reference to it in the movie as dialogue instead, and that was that. There is no contention there, no sign of Disney and Ryan Reynolds never working together again, and no sign that Disney is watering down Deadpool. It is just no overt drug use.

Deadpool and Wolverine might actually get even more screen time in the upcoming Avengers film and the rest of the Multiverse Saga, and you cannot really have a character like Deadpool doing cocaine in the MCU and then cross him over into a PG-13 corner of the universe where younger kids might go watch him do drugs on screen. That is just not on brand for Disney. If this is the only constraint placed on Deadpool & Wolverine, the only thing said to be off the table, they can still make an incredible Deadpool movie that pushes boundaries and is still thoroughly R rated. You do not need cocaine use in the film, and I would argue it does not detract from his character at all.

What this means for Deadpool and Wolverine going into Avengers 5

It is official that Marvel has offered Shawn Levy first refusal on the next Avengers film. If he takes it, Deadpool, and possibly Wolverine as well, could appear in that movie too. That points to Deadpool & Wolverine being a launching off point for the character within the future of the MCU, rather than the product of any real conflict between Reynolds, Levy and Feige.

Do you agree that even though Deadpool has done cocaine in his previous movies, it is not an absolute requirement to make a good Deadpool film, and if you have heard drama out there about things being bad between Ryan Reynolds and Marvel, have you actually seen any of those sources cite a real source for it?