I’m willing to go on the record and admit that I went into “Deadpool & Wolverine” highly skeptical about the whole enterprise. The typical Deadpool-style of humor felt completely played out, sure, but it was only natural that Marvel would triple down on the obnoxious (yet highly profitable, judging by the blockbuster’s billion-dollar performance at the box office) comic book character. But to drag along a beloved figure like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and, in the process, completely undo his poignant ending in director James Mangold’s “Logan”? That’s another matter entirely. In all honesty, I’m still convinced there will never be a better sendoff for the most popular X-Men than that 2017 film, but at least Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds had the presence of mind to directly address this adamantium-laced elephant in the room right away.
Not a single fan could’ve expected “Deadpool & Wolverine” to open by literally digging up Logan’s grave and exhuming his skeleton to use as weapons in a knock-down, drag-out fight sequence set to “Bye Bye Bye” by N*SYNC, not least of all because this could’ve easily been interpreted as throwing shade at the previous movie. But not everyone interpreted this as some unforgivable slight against “Logan.” While Mangold himself has avoided wading into the discourse (aside from one retweet on his Twitter account of an old set photo with himself, Jackman, and Dafne Keen), his co-writer Michael Green recently opened up about his thoughts on this potentially controversial scene.
In a pleasantly surprising twist, Green has nothing but good things to say about how the filmmakers handled this tricky tonal balancing act.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s opening scene was ‘complimentary’ to Logan
If there’s one thing that can consistently trip up filmmakers, it’s figuring out how to establish the proper tone in a given movie or show. The writing can be top-notch material, the actors can bring their A-game, but it can all go down the drain if the artists haven’t done the hard work to understand how every aspect of a scene comes across to audiences. For “Logan” co-writer Michael Green (known for his work on “Blade Runner 2049,” Kenneth Branagh’s trio of Hercules Poirot murder-mystery movies, and most recently the animated “Blue Eye Samurai” series), the “Deadpool & Wolverine” creative team knocked that opening scene right out of the park.
In an interview with IGN, Green revealed that he actually had friends tip him off that he may not love the way “Deadpool & Wolverine” opens. “People had warned me ahead of time, ‘Uh, I don’t know how you’re gonna feel about the opening.’ I’m like, ‘I think I know what’s gonna happen.’ And I did not know! I didn’t know they were gonna go that far,” Green said. But rather than take it as an insult to his work on “Logan,” the veteran writer appreciated the humor and fun of it all:
“You weren’t meant to take seriously that they were, like, digging him up, and that it was really him. It felt less like they were trying to change the ending of ‘Logan’ as they were contending with not feeling that they wanted to make a movie as good as they felt ‘Logan’ was, which is a huge compliment! I felt like it was nothing but complimentary.”
What a great sense of perspective! Still, even Green had his limits. He goes on to mention the one line he was grateful that “Deadpool & Wolverine” didn’t cross.
Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t rehash the Green Lantern debacle
For his own sake, nobody tell Michael Green about the very final scene in “Deadpool 2” — you know, the one that takes a final potshot at the unholy mess known as “Green Lantern,” the notorious flop that also starred Ryan Reynolds as fan-favorite superhero Hal Jordan. The blockbuster had several factors working against it at the time, but even the film’s most passionate detractors wouldn’t put that misfire directly on the shoulders of director Martin Campbell or even the four writers credited for the script. Green, of course, happens to be one of those co-writers, but nobody would ever reduce his wildly successful career down to this one doomed superhero movie.
Still, it’s to his credit that he’s developed a sense of humor about it all — even when it could’ve been a sore subject for him. After enthusing about the crowd reaction to “Deadpool & Wolverine” during his screening — “That movie’s such a good time. I mean, when we saw it in a full theater, people went bananas to everything. It’s great. It’s a great franchise, like, more, please!” — Green also admits to IGN later on that he was glad that he could avoid being the butt of an actual joke:
“You know what I appreciate even more was no ‘Green Lantern’ jokes, because I was partly responsible … You gotta wear it with a badge of honor!”
Reynolds himself hasn’t been shy about throwing “Green Lantern” under the bus over the years (which, to be frank, feels a little unfair to everyone else who worked hard on the movie and had little control over the end result), but at least he showed some restraint this time around. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters.
