20th Century Fox apparently made star and co-writer Ryan Reynolds cut a Disney joke from Deadpool 2, though it’s not entirely clear why.
“This is a sore spot for me because there’s a joke in the movie that is not in the movie now because — I’m probably not even allowed to say this — Fox made me take it out,” Reynolds told Entertainment Weekly. “It had more to do with Disney, and they made me take it out. As I look back at it, I think maybe that was a wise decision.”
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The removal of the joke is likely due to last December’s news that Disney had reached an agreement worth almost $60 billion dollars that would see it acquire major parts of Fox and regain the rights to many of its superhero characters, including the X-Men and Deadpool. However, the movie is still set to feature a joke about Disney’s Frozen, and parts of Deadpool 2‘s marketing campaign have involved making reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it’s not entirely clear why the particular joke that Reynolds references here would be such a sticking point for Fox.
Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable and Julian Dennison as Russell. The film hits theaters on May 18.
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