Disney
Thanks to overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth, Ryan Reynolds’ new blockbuster Free Guy has arguably become the movie of the summer, beating box office projections to take home $28.4 million at the domestic box office over the weekend.
Buoyed by a typically charismatic performance from Reynolds, inventive world-building/realization, and a Ted Lasso-esque positivity, Free Guy has been such a success that Reynolds confirmed over the weekend that Disney — who aren’t even the ones who originally made the film — are interested in making a sequel. Disney didn’t make the film, of course, because it was originally a 21st Century Fox production, making it one of the assets they absorbed when they acquired the company back in 2019.
REVIEW: ‘Free Guy’ Is V. Good
As a result of Disney acquiring the film, Free Guy became a part of the Mouse House’s massive toy chest, therefore enabling them to play with some of the studio’s other iconic toys, which ultimately led to the end of the film being changed.
Warning: spoilers for ‘Free Guy’ will follow.
In a new interview with EW, director Shawn Levy revealed that while the central conceit of Guy taking on a larger version of himself, Dude, remained the same, the access to Disney IP is what allowed Guy to “whip out a lightsaber, Hulk fists, and Captain America’s shield as weapons against Dude”, with the last reference including a cameo from Chris Evans himself.
“There was always this [idea] for the third act of the movie to show Guy fighting an upgraded version of himself named Dude,” Levy said. “We always wanted this idea that, at that point, Guy had mastery of the game world in which he lives and can therefore access all the various devices and weaponry that advanced players can utilize in Free City.”
In light of the Disney-Fox merger, they realized, “If the whole idea of this movie is wish fulfillment, wouldn’t the ultimate wish fulfillment for Guy to be to use the most iconic weaponry, essentially, in cultural history? And now we’re owned by the same studio that conveniently owns Lucas[film] and Marvel.”
Free Guy is now playing in theaters. Better go check it out now as all signs point to it becoming a franchise.
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