Deadpool doesn’t crash into theaters for another 48 hours, but will the film tracking to open somewhere between $65 and $70 million, 20th Century Fox has already commissioned a sequel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have begun writing a follow-up to the R-rated superhero flick. There’s no doubt that Ryan Reynolds will return as the merc with a mouth, and insiders say Fox also plans to bring back the entire creative team, including director Tim Miller.
For his part, Reynolds recently said he’d put another film in the X-Men universe ahead of a Deadpool sequel. “In the future, if we’re doing a bunch more Deadpool movies, we’re really going to explore the X-Men a lot,” he told FILMSTARTS. “We’ll see. And maybe X-Force — X-Force is my priority. I really want to get that in.”
In the comics, X-Force is like the Black Ops versions of the X-Men. Production on a live-action version began back in 2013 with Kick-Ass 2 helmer Jeff Wadlow hired to direct and write the film. His script received praise from Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, but the film was put on hold when X-Men: Apocalypse and Deadpool were greenlit. The film’s team was said to have featured Cable (son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, and frequent foil for Deadpool), Warpath (who appeared in Days of Future Past), Domino (a mutant with luck powers), Cannonball (who featured in an early Deadpool script), and a second female speculated to be Boom Boom.
Of course, like many X-teams, the membership has varied over the years. Deadpool has been a frequent member, as have Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Archangel, Sunspot, Feral, and more. Should Deadpool prove as successful as it seems to be, it’s possible we could see any of these characters in an R-rated team-up film unlike any X-film before it.
