20th Century Fox
With the rampant, box office-shattering success of Joker, it can be easy to forget that the R-rated superhero is still a relatively new idea.
Back in 2016, Deadpool broke the mold when it came to comic book filmmaking, as it went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated film in history (it has since been supplanted by Deadpool 2 and Joker). These days, R-rated comic book films are now a proven commodity, as the likes of the Deadpool films, Joker, and Logan have all been both massive critical and financial successes.
However, despite the fact that he essentially pioneered a new genre with Deadpool, the film’s director Tim Miller ultimately walked away from the franchise, and according to the man himself, it was because of Ryan Reynolds.
Speaking on KCRW’s The Business podcast, Miller — who went on to director Terminator: Dark Fate — revealed why he ultimately stepped away from the project, and surprisingly, it had a lot to do with franchise star Ryan Reynolds.
“It became clear that Ryan wanted to be in control of the franchise,” Miller said.
“You can work that way as a director, quite successfully, but I can’t. I don’t mind having a debate, but if I can’t win, I don’t want to play. And I don’t think you can negotiate every creative decision, there’s too many to make. So Ryan’s the face of the franchise, and he was the most important component of that, by far. So if he decides he wants to control it, then he’s going to control it.”
“I’ve always been pretty good at the ‘moving on’ thing. I care deeply, and then you get to this point where you’ve gotta make a decision, and I’m pretty good about putting it in my rearview mirror. We had a meeting at Fox, and the writing was on the wall, so I said, ‘I get it. I’ll quit, and you guys can do what you need to do.’”
To be fair to Miller, the Deadpool franchise certainly suffered without him, as the sequel — while still solid — was nowhere near the quality of the first film. As for the eventual third film in the franchise, we’ll have to wait and see how the Mouse House decides to handle the Merc with a Mouth.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or contact him eric@brobible.com