The trailer for the Ryan Reynolds X-Men spinoff premieres Tuesday night on Conan
Ryan Reynolds has been talking about wanting to make a Deadpoolmovie since 2005. The character — part of the Marvel comics universe, which includes both the X-Men and the Avengers — was first introduced on the big screen in 20th Century Fox’s Wolverine: Origins. There’s a good chance you never saw him because the film flopped at the box office. But now a highly anticipated trailer for the standalone movie is finally premiering on Conan Tuesday night. Before you watch, here’s everything you need to know about Deadpool’s mercenary past, incredible healing powers and bizarre romantic entanglements.
Deadpool, also known as Wade Wilson, has become a fan favorite because he’s, well, crazy. He often breaks the fourth wall, addressing the reader directly — even commenting on the fact that he’s a comic book character. He also engages in witty banter with the many voices inside his head. Mentally unstable, sure, but definitely fun.
Wade Wilson grew up with abusive parents and ran away as a teenager. He was eventually trained as an assassin and worked as a mercenary. After being diagnosed with cancer, Wilson volunteered to let a government research lab experiment on him as part of the “Weapon X” mutant weaponization project, where Wolverine got his Adamantium skeleton.
MORE: This Map Shows How All the Future Marvel Movies Are Connected
Wilson eventually became the experimental subject of the sadistic Dr. Killbrew, and his assistant, Ajax. During painful testing, he gained super-healing abilities that cure his cancer (similar to Wolverine’s restorative powers) but also intense scarring all over his face and body — hence the full-body suit and mask. Though the healing powers prevent him from dying — Deadpool has literally lost his head in the comics only to survive by simply growing a new one — they also reject any medicine or drugs he puts into his body. That’s bad news for someone mentally unstable.
While Wilson was being experimented upon, a group of subjects began a “dead pool,” betting on who will be the last to die at the hands of the researchers. Wilson eventually leads an escape, taking the name Deadpool and vowing to have his revenge. Dr. Killbrew will likely be the main villain in the film.
After leaving the Weapon X project, Deadpool took odd jobs working as a fighter and assassin for various people in the Marvel comic book universe, always making wisecracks as he killed. He’s fondly referred to in the books as “the Merc with the Mouth.”
Characters in Deadpool’s life include Blind Al, an old woman he kidnapped and keeps as a sort of friendly hostage, and Weasel, Deadpool’s friend and weapon supplier who will be played by Silicon Valley’s T.J. Miller in the movie.
Deadpool has also cycled through many love interests, including Copycat, a shape-shifter played by Firefly’s Morena Baccerin in the upcoming film. She is similar to X-Men character Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), except stronger because she can take on the powers of whomever she’s imitating. But Deadpool’s most interesting relationship has been with the literal incarnation of Death herself, a character in the Marvel universe. Deadpool tries to kill himself over and over to be with her, which makes for some hilarious scenarios — remember that it’s basically impossible for him to actually die.
Sadly Death will probably not show up in the Deadpool film. Avengersvillain Thanos (the guy with the purple face) is also in love with Death, andin the Marvel Studios films, he’s been busy gathering Infinity Stones to destroy the world and impress her — a storyline that will come to a head inAvengers: Infinity Wars, Parts I and II. In the comics, Deadpool has battled Thanos for Death’s affections. Since Fox only owns the rights to certain X-Men characters and Marvel Studios has the rights to theAvengers characters, it’s unclear whether Fox can or will allude to this relationship in the film.
Deadpool has fought with many different villains and good guys (he is a mercenary for hire, after all). The synopsis for the film seems to suggest that Deadpool will battle Dr. Killebrew and Ajax. At one point in the comics, he begs to become a part of the X-Men, a storyline which will likely fold him into the greater X-Men universe in the upcoming movies.
There are many reasons to be excited for this spinoff, not the least of which is the teaser for the trailer already took shots at the poorly receivedWolverine: Origins and the inexplicable decision to sew Deadpool’s mouth shut in that movie. Reynolds and Fox have promised a movie true to the comic, so it will likely break the fourth wall and have an R rating.
Two Deadpool Trailers? Both Are Awesome
Well, these are exactly what we’ve been looking for: Deadpool, full of funny and killing. Redband trailer’s below, it’s ... really NSFW.
If nothing else, the fight to get Deadpool it’s rightful R rating is borne out by this version, which is mostly the same as the other one. Except for all the blood. And the cursing. “You look like Freddy Kruger facefucked a topographical map of Utah” is a much better description than “You look like a topographical map of Utah.”
The best line however? Is Ryan Reynolds talking a shot at his other comic book character: “And please don’t make the supersuit green. Or animated.”
Conan Goes TV-MA For Deadpool Red Band Trailer
The new Deadpool movie red band trailer will premiere during tonight’s episode of Conan, and the trailer is apparently so NSFW that the network has bumped the episode’s rating to TV-MA.
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, Deadpool tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.
Fox Uses 'Deadpool' Trailer To Hype 'Fantastic Four' Movie
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Despite ironclad nondisclosure agreements, word has been somewhat leaking out that perhaps 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four movie isn’t all that bad. I’ll let you know in exactly 36 hours, as I’ll be seeing it on Wednesday morning with the review set to drop at 6:00pm tomorrow. It’s going to be a crazy day thanks to multiple screenings on Wednesday, and it’s quite possible I’ll end up writing that review on a laptop on whatever hard surface I can find at any given moment. I’m weirdly excited to see the Josh Trank picture. I’m genuinely curious about what the final product looks like after the various gossip and production headaches. It’s the rare big blockbuster that’s something of a complete unknown, as I will be walking in without any real idea of what to expect. But the irony is that while general audiences may have a relative interest in the superhero reboot disconnected from the fan-centric controversy (that’s a conversation for tomorrow), the hardcore comic nerds are arguably more excited about the premiere tonight at 10:00pm EST of the Deadpool trailer.
As you know, Ryan Reynolds will be a guest on tonight’s Conan O’Brien show where he will unveil the “red band” trailer for the R-rated superhero movie. O’Brien’s twitter feed promises an uncut and unbleeped trailer and thus the show will be rate TV-MA for one night only, so sorry to all of you preteen Judy Greer fans! This is not the first time that the trailer for a major upcoming movie has been used to raise the profile and/or fan interest in another upcoming movie from the same studio. The last two Dark Knight movies debuted their first trailers during the opening weekends of I Am Legend and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (with Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol getting that IMAX prologue for The Dark Knight Rises while Game of Shadows got the traditional trailer) and the various 35mm and IMAX-specific teases got more ink than the films being advertised.
It’s also true that we’ve never had a situation where a movie magically overperformed thanks to a much-anticipated trailer. It’s not like Thirteen Days earned $45 million on opening weekend thanks to the debut of the Lord of the Rings teaser, especially with signs posted in the lobby refusing to give refunds to anyone who bought a ticket to the damn-good Cuban Missile Crisis drama and trying to leave after the trailer reel. But a high profile trailer debut can accomplish one very important task. They can get the media to talk about the movie that is “hosting” said trailer. Every single blog post that goes live tonight discussing the Deadpool trailer will also mention that it will be attached to prints of Fantastic Four this weekend. And even if the kind of person who would seek out a Deadpool trailer is generally the kind of person who is already planning to see Fantastic Four in theaters, the geek-centric nature of modern entertainment media means that any number of mainstream outlets (raises hand) will also be covering both the trailer and the movie with perhaps more ferocity than they otherwise might have.
What’s interesting about this is how “full circle” it all feels. Deadpool is a mid-budget, R-rated superhero movie based on a comic book that is being used to pump up interest in a mainstream, PG-13 team-based, ensemble superhero movie. That’s amusing, because the first Fantastic Four teaser was released in late January and succeeded in pumping up interest in Kingsman: The Secret Service, which was a mid-budget, R-rated super spy movie based on a comic book. Now the Fantastic Four teaser isn’t responsible for the film’s $421m worldwide gross, but it didn’t hurt. And going back a little bit, it was the surefire win that was X-Men: Days of Future Past (a mainstream, PG-13 team-based, ensemble superhero movie) that acted as the launching pad for the Kingsman marketing campaign. And going forward, it can be presumed that, if 20th Century Fox can be patient enough, they can use the February 12th release of Deadpool to drop a teaser for X-Men: Apocalypse which is due Memorial Day weekend 2016, although I’m sure they’ll just drop the first teaser with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and hold the second trailer for Deadpool.
And come May of 2016, X-Men: Apocalypse will be a great launching pad for Channing Tatum’s totally not cancelled Gambit movie which itself is due October of 2016. And then Fox can use that film as a launching pad for the third Wolverine movie which is dropping March of 2017. Although Fantastic Four 2 will (theoretically) come out just three months later, too late for a conventional start of a major marketing campaign, said James Mangold Wolverine picture works as the prime place to drop a second or third Fantastic Four 2 trailer with Gambit perhaps acting as a launching pad for Wolverine 3 and Fantastic Four 2. And after that they can use Fantastic Four 2 (or if that film doesn’t quite happen, the third Planet of the Apes film the month after) to tease whatever is coming up next in their Marvel universe. And so the cycle will continue, with one big superhero/franchise movie acting as a prime launching pad for the marketing campaign for the next installment. And that is basically how it works now.
Fox isn’t the only studio in this position, as Walt Disney has been able to use “Marvel Movie A” to launch “Marvel Movie B” for quite some time now if they so chose, although half the time they went for a television premiere exclusive (usually on an ABC show) without a big movie to attach said teaser to. Nonetheless, expect a Dr. Strange teaser attached to Captain America: Civil War. Expect Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. to attach a somewhat more mainstream (kid friendly?) Suicide Squad trailer to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice with a thinkpiece-bait Wonder Woman teaser attached to Suicide Squad. In the olden days, studios usually launched their trailers alongside their own movies and that was that. But now that trailer launches are events in-and-of-themselves it’s a little more complicated, and it’s just as tempting to try to steal the thunder of a rival studio’s movie, although that kinda backfired in April with the Batman v Superman teaser when the teaser underwhelmed and Disney one-upped them with a fat-bait Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. And these are the games they play.
The point of all this, aside from merely doing a run down of how well Fox’s superhero schedule lines up for this kind of gimmick, is a reminder that despite all the Internet chatter and online exclusives, the best piece of marketing for a major movie is a solid trailer attached to another big movie that everyone sees. Deep Impact had its great teaser attached to Titanic, Fox attached their curiosity-inspiring teaser of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief to Avatar, and Universal/Comcast Corp. has been able to attach their future big movies to the premiere of the current big movies all summer long. When Straight Outta Compton goes nuts next weekend, and I still think it will, it will partially be because of the trailer which was attached to every print of Furious 7 back in April. If Fantastic Four hits it big this weekend, and right now tracking is at a “not bad” $40 million for the weekend, countless moviegoers both converted and (most importantly) otherwise unaware will see the greenband Deadpool teaser this weekend. Yeah sure the online teaser debut is good for publicity (and good for web traffic), but in terms of selling the movie to the general public, nothing beats the old-school “stick this trailer before this big movie.
