jokes, um,Deadpool 2 star Ryan Reynolds of his unfiltered, uncouth superpow-
ered antihero. “He can’t defend the decisions he’s made, right down to, like, the
shirt-tie combo. I feel like he just doesn’t agree with Ryan Reynolds’ DNA.” And
yet Ryan Reynoldsis Deadpool. The actor is the face of the film series but also
one of its most passionate creative forces, including co-writingDeadpool 2with
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. “Ryan is the keeper of the Deadpool flame,” says
producer Simon Kinberg (2019’sDark Phoenix). “It’s extraordinary how much
he fully invests in Deadpool.” It’s not hard to see why:Deadpool premiered in
February 2016 to $132 million, quickly becoming not only the second-highest-
grossing R-rated film domestically afterThe Passion of the Christ (a fact used for
comedy inDeadpool 2) but also a new franchise for Reynolds and Twentieth
Century Fox. “Going in and making a sequel is intimidating. I never planned on
doing a sequel,” says director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde), who stepped in after
Tim Miller helmed the first film. “But to have the opportunity to doDeadpool
is different in that the world is so fun and irreverent you can kinda go any-
where.”Deadpool 2, opening May 18, finds the titular red-suited assassin
otherwise known as Wade Wilson battling time traveler Cable (Josh Brolin);
protecting a fire-wielding mutant youth named Russell (Hunt for the Wilder-
people’s Julian Dennison); assembling a motley crew of mutants he calls X-Force,
an offshoot of the X-Men; and encountering a smorgasbord of superhero and
celebrity cameos. EW talked to Reynolds, 41, about the sequel’s secrets, the
franchise’s future, and, naturally, the importance of Barbra Streisand’sYentl.When you all were first brainstorming
the sequel, were there certain things you
knew you wanted?
Those conversations were happening really
early, like on the set of the firstDeadpool.
Most of the times we were just pitching
utterly absurd scenes, two of which are in
Deadpool 2 now. At the time we were just,
“What if we did this and that?” It was utter
nonsense. If someone could have heard us,
they would have just been like, “Nobody
will make that movie, honey.” But some-
how here we are.
Cable and Domino [Zazie Beetz; see
sidebar, opposite], along with some
surprise characters, are from the comics.
Is the plot based on a particular story line
from the Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza
comic series?I FEEL LIKE
DEADPOOL
CAN’T
STAND
RYAN
REYNOLDS,”
22 EW.COM MAY 11, 2018