Shawn Levy has been tapped — or maybe it should be targeted — to direct Deadpool 3.
The director is in negotiations to team up with star Ryan Reynolds for the Marvel property, after previously collaborating on 20th Century’s pandemic-era hit Free Guy and the just-released sci-fi adventure movie The Adam Project on Netflix.
Fans have been champing at the bit for another chapter in the raunchy, violent and of course, hilarious Deadpool series since the 2018 sequel, which added Josh Brolin as Cable and Zazie Beetz as Domino.
The first, record-breaking Deadpool (2016) was directed by Tim Miller. The sequel was helmed by David Leitch.
Frequent Reynolds collaborators Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who penned the scripts for the first two films, are now working on Deadpool 3. Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, known for the animated series Bob’s Burgers, previously worked on the script for the third installment of the franchise, based on the character introduced in the comics by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza.
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The Deadpool films are the top-grossing X-Men films of all time, with the original earning $783.1 million, and the sequel bringing in $785.8 million at the worldwide box office.
This will be the first Deadpool film following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which released the first two installments. The news comes on the heels of Disney announcing it would move its Netflix series to Disney+. Those shows include Daredevil and Punisher, which, along with Deadpool, are the most mature Marvel content in the Disney fold. The first two Deadpool films are currently not available on Disney+, and there was concern at the time that Marvel might not continue the R-rated franchise considering Disney’s longstanding reputation for family-friendly fare. Then-CEO Bob Iger assuaged those fears by saying Deadpool could remain R-rated.
A release date for Deadpool 3 has yet to be announced.
Borys Kit contributed to this story.
