Once Upon a Deadpool: What Does the “Soft” Version of Deadpool 2 Look Like?
The superhero will tell his adventures to teenagers like in Princess Bride, this evening on C8.
In the fall of 2018, 20th Century Fox shook up its release schedule: Alita Battle Angel passed from December to February 2019, taking the place of X-Men Dark Phoenix which was postponed in June. Amid these announcements, surprise! The firm announced that it had recovered the December 21 slot for “an untitled Deadpool PG-13“.
The studio therefore had a Dead Pool new in stock? Had Ryan Reynolds filmed a new sequel in secret? This announcement made noise, before Deadline don’t give a few details…
The team actually went back Deadpool 2 so that it can be seen by younger viewers in the United States: PG-13 corresponds to “not recommended for under 13s unaccompanied by an adult” while the project was until now R-Rated (less than 17 years old). But how can we transform this schoolboy action comedy into a film for almost everyone? Here are the details, at a time when C8 is banking on the broadcast of this version, subtitled “Once upon a time there was Deadpool” starting at 9:19 p.m. this evening.
The great cameos of Deadpool 2 (and the one that ultimately isn’t in the film)
Following the announcement, Reynolds shared a photo of himself in his costume recounting his adventures to Fred Savage, the actor of Princess Bride. He thus reprises the role he played as a child in Rob Reiner’s family film, which was released in 1987 and became cult in the United States. We follow a kid who, sick, cannot go to school. His grandfather (Peter Falk) then decides to tell him “a story of a princess and revenge”, which doesn’t really excite him, at first. The story is then interspersed with comments from the young boy, who is gradually taken in by the plot.
Deadpool 2’s post-credits scenes are exceptional
This reference of choice is not a coincidence, the side “meta” of the narration of Princess Bride sticking perfectly to Dead Pool : by telling his own adventure to a bedridden Fred Savage, the superhero can cut/transform the crudest passages… As well visually (Deadpool’s murders are very “graphics”) than in its language: remember that in the USA, the use of crude terms (including the famous “fuck”) can be enough to stamp an R-Rated production.
In addition to this addition, Reynolds carried out other reshoots in the summer of 2018 in order to refine this version, longer than the original by a handful of minutes. “Yes, we shot new things, confirmed Paul Wernick, the film’s co-writer with Rhett Reese, just before its release in American theaters. Very recently. When Deadpool 2 came out, we got together and came up with the idea of remaking a PG-13 film, in which we would talk a little more about the character of Deadpool. We were exchanging ideas, and I think it was Ryan who found a great angle for this new version. We were really excited, so we talked about it in the studio. They accepted, they gave us the green light. So, about two months ago, we were back on set. Ryan was in the suit, the whole gang was there: Dave Leitch (director), Ryan and us. We laughed a lot ! This montage looks good, we are super happy with the result.”
Come out Deadpool 2 in the United States allowed the studio to attract a new audience, even if the bulk of the revenue had already been amassed by the original version. The first part brought in 783 million dollars worldwide (including 363 in the United States alone) and the second, 734 (including 318 there, and 5 million more thanks to the PG-13 editing). Both films are among the top R-rated hits of all time in the US, only beaten by Joker And Oppenheimer. The third opus, which is being produced under the direction of Shawn Levy, should also have this ban when it is released in cinemas in the fall of 2024.
This release “soft” of Deadpool 2 is still quite ironic, as the entire promotion of this superheroic comedy, like that of the first part, revolved around the fact that this sequel would be uncensored! Speaking directly to the spectators, the superhero once again promised to let go… And it was again “worse” in the advertisements for its DVDs and Blu-rays, since they offered deleted scenes “too violent” to appear in the final cut.
In France, this version was offered directly during its digital release. Just like the one subtitled “Super mega $@%!#& cool“, which is, unlikeOnce Upon a Deadpoolan uncensored montage, with even more violence and swear words: the character’s multiple suicide attempts are notably trashier.
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