Following the release of Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*, Marvel Studios rounded out its run on the 2025 movies schedule with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Besides taking place on an alternate, ‘60s retro-futuristic Earth, one of the other ways the latest Fantastic Four movie stood out from its predecessors was by delivering a faithful adaptation of Galactus. Now Ralph Ineson, who played the Devourer of Worlds, has shared a cheeky response to some criticism directed at his MCU character from Rob Liefeld, the co-creator of Deadpool.

This started on X when a fan account posted a crisp gif of Galactus walking through New York City while his suit engulfed is engulfed in flames, though this doesn’t bother him because he’s, well, one of the most powerful entities in existence. Liefeld posted that this moment looks “so fake” and that the “Marvel FX fell off a cliff,” prompting Ralph Ineson to say this in his own X post:

This is indeed another example of something from The Fantastic Four: First Steps living “rent free” in Rob Liefeld’s head, as Ineson put it. On Tuesday, July 31, he shared a photo of a mostly empty 5 pm IMAX screening of the 37th MCU movie and wrote that there was “very little repeat biz on this film” because it’s “impossibly dull & boring.” However, this has been par for the course in the last few years when it comes to Liefeld and Marvel-related things.

Liefeld, who created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza and is also well known on the Marvel front for working on titles like The New Mutants and X-Force, has been on the outs with this subsidiary of Disney since this past February. The writer/artist shared that when he attended the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere in July 2024 with his family, they were not invited to the afterparty and were ignored by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and other Disney officials. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for Liefeld after he’d had issues with Marvel in 2023, and he cut ties with the company.

All this is to say that Rob Liefeld is not Marvel’s biggest fan at this stage of his life, and he certainly didn’t care for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He’s by no means alone with that, as our own Eric Eisenberg rated the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars in his The Fantastic Four: First Steps review. But for the most part, the debut of the MCU’s take on Marvel’s First Family has been met with positive critical reception, boasting an 86% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and a 90% Popcornmeter.

For those who’ve made it this far but still haven’t seen The Fantastic Four: First Steps, don’t worry, as it can now be streamed with a Disney+ subscription. We’ll see Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby’s Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Thing and Joseph Quinn’s Human Torch back in action for Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026, but it’s hard to say when or even if Galactus will resurface since he and Silver Surfer were banished to parts unknown.

In addition to its strong opening weekend performance, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has been met with a lot of positive critical reception, so it’s fair to call it one of Marvel Studios’ successes. However, not everyone’s a fan of the latest adaptation of Marvel’s First Family. Rob Liefeld, who co-created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza, didn’t mince words while sharing his thoughts about the 2025 movie starring Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby’s Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Thing and Joseph Quinn’s Human Torch.

Following five months after he took aim at Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige over Captain America: Brave New World’s box office drop, Liefeld went on X to share a picture he took of an empty IMAX theater screening First Steps to accompany his negative reaction to the movie. Check it out:

Ok, I need to point out that Rob Liefeld posted this on Tuesday. Sure, it’s a shame that theater wasn’t packed, but at 5 pm on a Tuesday, a lot of people are either still at work or have just come home and might not be in the mood to go straight back out to see a movie. Plus, IMAX tickets cost more than what you’d pay for a standard screening, so taking those factors into consideration, I don’t think the amount of attendees in that theater should be considered indicative of The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ quality.

Still, Rob Liefeld is entitled to his opinion about First Steps, as no movie is ever going to please every person that sees it. Still, this continues the writer/artist’s critical streak towards Marvel. Back in January, he expressed his dissatisfaction at Deadpool & Wolverine not including Josh Brolin’s Cable. Then the following month, Liefeld shared that he’d severed ties with Marvel over issues that began in 2023, but reached a tipping point over alleged slights at the Deadpool & Wolverine New York premiere. Also, in February 2024, he announced that he was retiring from working on Deadpool comics, though he cited his age as the main reason for this.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps may not have Rob Liefeld’s cup of tea, but with its 86% Tomatometer and 92% Popcornmeter scores on Rotten Tomatoes, it certainly was for many others. A Fantastic Four sequel is reportedly already in development, and as theorized by Variety last month, it could fit into one of the four theatrical slot’s Marvel’s blocked off for 2028. Other possibilities include the long-awaited Blade reboot, Black Panther 3 and the X-Men reboot.

But we don’t have to wait until then to reunite with the MCU’s Fantastic Four, as they’ll return for Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027. Finger crossed that Rob Liefeld is more entertained by their appearances in those gigantic ensembles.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for constantly producing new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and its properties it finally opened the door for Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool to join the fun... but it took years before Deadpool & Wolverine hit theaters (and broke records). And the character's creator Rob Liefeld recently offered a Kevin Feige-related explanation for why fans were left waiting for so long.

Prior to its release, Deadpool & Wolverine was one of the most hotly anticipated upcoming Marvel movies hitting theaters. So it might be surprising that it took the studio so long to actually green light the threequel. During an appearance on the Millar Time podcast, Liefeld made some allegations about why Marvel dragged its feet in this regard. In his words:

Well, that's definitely one explanation for how things went down with Deadpool. While we should treat this as a rumor for the time being (especially since Liefeld doesn't like Feige), but it could offer some context into what was reportedly happening in the studio. Because it was strange how many years it took before Deadpool & Wolverine finally started production.

Liefeld's story might be conjecture, but he does offer some solid points. After all, there have been a number of MCU movies that have failed in the years since Avengers: Endgame hit theaters and became the highest grossing movie of all time. For example, The Marvels was a box office flop, while other titles like Ant-Man 3 struggled as well.

In addition to titles that struggled at the box office, other titles like Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder failed to resonate with audiences. The pressure was likely on at the studio, and Deadpool & Wolverine's success came at the perfect time. So that part of Liefeld's allegations about Kevin Feige seems logical.

Given how much audiences turned out to see Deadpool 3, I have to assume that we'll be seeing Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in their roles sometime in the future. While they weren't listed in Avengers: Doomsday's cast announcement, fans are definitely hoping to see them finally join the Avengers franchise.

The Deadpool franchise is streaming on Disney+ now, and the next MCU movie hitting theaters is The Fantastic Four: First Steps on July 25th as part of the 2025 movie release list.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is still the biggest franchise in Hollywood today, but it’s not a controversial statement to say that the MCU (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription) has had difficulty finding its footing post-Avengers: Endgame. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies order know there have been a handful of clear success stories, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine, many of the recent MCU films have struggled, and now a former Marvel comic writer thinks it is time for Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to step down.

Rob Liefeld is best known as one of the creators of Deadpool, but he recently had a somewhat acrimonious split from the House of Ideas following what he claims was disrespect from Kevin Feige and others at Marvel Studios. In a post to Twitter, Liefeld took aim at Feige, claiming that the second-weekend box office drop for Captain America: Brave New World is evidence that Feige’s run of success is over. Liefeld said…

The week-to-week drop in box office for Brave New World isn't an MCU record but it is certainly significant. While the movie had a solid opening, nearly $200 million at the global box office, the movie dropped nearly 70% in its second weekend and currently sits at a global total of under $300 million. While it’s not the most significant second-weekend drop for the MCU, it’s not insignificant.

Still, it seems a bit excessive to call Kevin Feige “spent” as a result of the new Captain America movie not setting box office records. While the film is technically the fourth Captain America project, it’s essentially the first movie in a new franchise with Anthony Mackie taking the lead as Captain America. The new film’s box office hasn’t been that different (adjusted for inflation) than that of Captain America: The First Avenger.

It’s not a secret that Marvel Studios went through some issues. Disney CEO Bob Iger has been open that he believes that the franchise, under previous CEO Bob Chapek, over-extended itself. Brave New World was given the green light during that era. And there was clearly already an internal understanding that the movie had issues as it had more significant reshoots than most blockbuster movies.

Those reshoots may have made Captain America: Brave New World a better movie, but they also increased the film’s overall budget, meaning it would need to be even more successful to be considered a win in the eyes of Disney.

It’s probably a bit too early to be calling or the end of Kevin Feige’s tenure at Marvel Studios. On the whole, his track record has been incredible, and there have been enough success stories recently to prove that the MCU is far from over.

It’s a pretty safe statement to say that people loved Deadpool & Wolverine. It ended 2024 as the highest-grossing live-action movie of the year, both domestically and worldwide, grossing well over $1 billion. Fans loved all the returning superhero characters from the various pre-MCU Marvel movies, but there was one character who was conspicuous by his absence, and Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld thinks the new movie made a big mistake leaving him out.

In addition to all the cameos and supporting characters who appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine, most of the cast of the two previous Deadpool films appeared, though in fairly small roles. However, Rob Liefeld thinks that one character from Deadpool 2 should have also been in the new film, as Josh Brolin’s Cable was nowhere to be found. In a response on Twitter to the recent news of Brolin possibly joining the DCU, Liefled posted…

While I think “all-time” might be a bit of an overstatement, Deadpool & Wolverine did just fine as it was, I have to agree with Liefeld that leaving Josh Brolin out was a significant misstep. Cable was an excellent addition to Deadpool 2 and beyond the fact that Deadpool makes a brief reference to screwing with time travel in the new film, events from second movie are barely addressed.

It’s not like bringing Cable back would have been out of place. Every other superhero you can shake a comic book at was in the movie, even some like Channing Tatum's Gambit whose movie never came to fruition.

It didn’t even need to be the same version of Cable that we saw in Deadpool 2, Brolin could have easily played some alternate version of the character that Deadpool and Wolverine came across while wandering the TVA wasteland, just like the other big cameos. It could have been a small role or a brief appearance if Brolin was too busy to do anything more significant.

It would be one thing if Marvel Studios decided that Deadpool was the only character from the X-Men universe who would be seen in the MCU. After all, we can be pretty sure that the official MCU X-Men, whenever they debut in upcoming Marvel movies, will be played by other actors. But of course, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was in the movie, and its title. And even Kelsey Grammar’s Beast made an appearance in The Marvels post-credits scene.

Maybe it was the fact that Brolin is already part of the MCU as Thanos. Of course Thanos is dead, and the fact that Brolin played both roles was already joked about in Deadpool 2 and could have been the source of even more fun in the new film.

Considering how long it took to make Deadpool & Wolverine happen and all the work that went into getting that cast together, leaving Josh Brolin out does feel like a significant lost opportunity.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been keeping us entertained for over a decade, thanks to new releases in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. The latest movie to hit hte big screen was Deadpool & Wolverine, which broke records at the box office. And while Hugh Jackman returned as Logan, the movie was noticeably missing Josh Brolin's Cable. And now Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has weighed in on Cable seemingly not being part of the MCU.

Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order patiently waited for Wade Wilson to join the fun, which happened during Deadpool & Wolverine. Unfortunately, Thanos actor Josh Brolin didn't appear as Cable, and seemingly won't return to the MCU. Liefeld tweeted out his thoughts about the subject, offering:

Well, that was honest. Clearly he liked Brolin's performance as Cable in Deadpool 2, and wanted to see more from the futuristic superhero. And while there was chatter about an X-Force movie, that never came to pass. And things got more complicated once Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and its properties. That's seemingly why Liefleld wishes that we got more Cable while we could.

Given just how iconic Josh Brolin was as Thanos, it might make sense for Marvel Studios to not want to put him back in another role. Obviously extensive motion capture and VFX was used to bring the Mad Titan to life, but he's also got a memorable voice. Alas, there's been no indication that the X-Men character would be returning to the shared universe.

When Deadpool & Wolverine finally hit theaters over the summer, The Merc with A Mouth was missing a few characters. Namely Cable and Zazie Beetz's Domino. They both were big characters in the second movie, which is why their absence in the threequel was so noticeably. It's unclear why this choice was made, although obviously the movie was focused on its two titel characters.

In addition to Brolin's acclaimed tenure as Thanos, another reason why the studio might not have wanted to move forward with these characters are because they're typically associated with X-Men lore. And Kevin Feige's longterm for the X-Men is largely a mystery for the time being. Perhaps they wanted to use Cable and Domino for other purposes.

What is clear is that Deadpool 3 was a huge success, even without those characters. And as such, fans are expecting the two title roles to factor heavily into upcoming Marvel movies. Hopefully we learn more about that and the X-Men soon.

The next MCU movie hitting theaters is Captain America: Brave New World on February 14th. For now, check the 2025 movie release dates.

As Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have been warding off Deadpool 3 leaks in their own on-brand ways as they shoot the summer blockbuster on the 2024 movie schedule, it’s pretty wild to think about how far the franchise has come since its humble beginnings. Remember when a Deadpool movie was all but a pipe dream before leaked Deadpool test footage changed the superhero’s big-screen fate? Well, it’s been nearly a decade since that video went viral, and the comic book character’s creator apparently knows some top-secret information about where it came from. 

Even though it was back in 2014 when the Deadpool footage was leaked leading 20th Century Fox to give Ryan Reynolds and his other collaborators the thumbs up to make the movie, we still don’t know who put out the infamous footage (which is still available to enjoy on YouTube). However, Rob Liefeld does. Per the creator of Deadpool’s words: 

Well, well, well. As Rob Liefeld told ComicBook, the studio behind the Deadpool movies reportedly knows exactly who leaked the test footage, and he knows who it was too, but he refused to name names. This information honestly only makes me more curious about the matter. If Fox and Liefeld know and aren’t telling anyone, there’s a story there. 

It doesn’t sound like anyone is going to talk anytime soon about it. However, the recent comments from Rob Liefeld do remind me of the massive journey Ryan Reynolds went on with this anti-hero just to get it on the big screen long before we could casually just say, ‘Oh, yeah Deadpool 3 is being filmed.’ It goes all the way back to 2004 when it was first announced that Deadpool was being developed with Reynolds. 

However, it wasn’t until years later, reportedly the weekend Green Lantern came out, when Reynolds and Tim Miller produced the test footage, which was then rejected by the studio. Three years after that, when the test footage was leaked online and was met with overwhelming support from Marvel fans, 20th Century Fox changed their tune and gave the filmmakers the green light to make the 2016 hit. 

Pretty wild, right? While I’m still dying to know who the heck saved Deadpool’s skin and leaked that test footage, I guess what’s most important is the success story it produced. For the time being, we get to anticipate a team-up movie between Deadpool and Wolverine next year, partly because of that test footage! Right now, Deadpool 3 is so anticipated that Reynolds has been creating his own bonkers leaks to sway people away from what has been seen on set as the movie recently resumed shooting. No matter what, you can’t deny Deadpool has gone on quite the journey! 

The superhero genre has been wildly popular for over a decade, but a few franchises have managed to stand out as fan favorites. Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is definitely in that category, and fans are eager for the threequel, which will mark the character’s entrance into the main MCU. The character’s creator Rob Liefeld got in trouble for teasing what’s coming in Deadpool 3, but now he’s back to hyping up the upcoming Marvel movie. 

Production on Deadpool 3 was underway when filming was halted due to the ongoing strikes. But anticipation is still high, partly thanks to the first images of Hugh Jackman in Wolverine’s yellow suit. While Liefeld was seemingly told to stop teasing what was happening on set, he did take to Twitter to share his excitement about upcoming merch like Funko Pops. Check it out for yourself below:

Well, there you have it. We’ll have to see if Liefeld got in trouble with Marvel Studios again, but this latest message seems innocent enough. While Deadpool 3 could end up being delayed, merch will seemingly started rolling out soon. Hopefully the merchandise for the threequel doesn’t end up spoiling any of its contents, which has become fairly commonplace in the past few years. 

The contents of the third Deadpool movie are currently a mystery, so there are countless fan theories about what might happen and which characters could pop up. The cast of Deadpool 3 contains some surprises such as Jennifer Garner’s return to Elektra. And such, it seems like just about anyone could pop up throughout its runtime. 

Fans have been not-so-patiently waiting for the third Deadpool movie since the first sequel hit theaters back in 2018. Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its properties finally opened the door for Ryan Reynolds’ title character to get in on the MCU action. But exactly how Wade Wilson will fit into the otherwise PG-13 franchise and its heroes remains to be seen. Fans are especially eager to see how he interacts with the likes of the Avengers whenever a major crossover event occurs.

Of course, Deadpool 3 has the potential to be a huge crossover moment anyway– especially with Hugh Jackman back in the role of Wolverine. There are a number of wild rumors about characters who might also appar, including names like Elizabeth Olsen, Owen Wilson, and Ian McKellen. While we wait for answers, this high level of fan engagement presumably hints at good things for the upcoming sequel.

Deadpool 3 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on May 3rd, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be a powerful force during Phase Five, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. One of the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movies is definitely Shawn Levy’s Deadpool 3, which will finally bring Ryan Reynolds’ beloved character to the shared universe. The fans are eager for any information about the blockbuster, but one of our main sources might be stopping. Because it sounds like Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld got in trouble with Marvel over his Deadpool 3 updates.

Rob Liefeld created the Merc with the Mouth for comics, and remains Deadpool’s biggest cheerleader to this day. He’s also been threatening to share set photos from Deadpool 3, which fans would no doubt be thrilled with. But he recently spoke to ComicBook at San Diego Comic-Con, and revealed he was seemingly in hot water with Marvel and Disney. As he put it,

Well, I’m bummed. It looks like Marvel fans won’t be able to turn to Liefeld’s social media for clues about what we’ll be seeing in the third Deadpool movie. And since production on Deadpool 3 has halted in the midst of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the wait for news is going to be doubly excruciating for moviegoers.

While not much is known about Deadpool 3, anticipation for the movie is sky-high. This is partly because Hugh Jackman is set to return as Wolverine for the first time since Logan. Jackman shared the first image of the clawed mutant in his signature yellow suit, which basically broke the internet. But now that production has halted, there’s probably not going to be any updates for the foreseeable future.

Rob Liefeld is known for his active social media, where he will occasionally offer his hot takes about Deadpool or the comic book genre in general. And while he still might be involved in Deadpool 3, he’s seemingly been asked to stop spilling the beans. But his excitement for Ryan Reynolds’ signature character is definitely contagious.

The plot of Deadpool 3 remains a mystery, but fans have been waiting years to change this. While Ryan Reynolds’ antihero will join the MCU, Deadpool will still reportedly be an R-rated franchise. And Deadpool 3’s cast includes new and returning faces 

Deadpool 3 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on May 3rd, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

LeBron James is a world-class athlete, shrewd businessman and one of the funniest sports stars of all time. But aside from that, he's also a devoted parent to his three kids, who he enjoys watching movies with. He frequently posts about his children and seems to be incredibly supportive of them. That’s especially been true over the past several months, as his oldest son, LeBron James Jr. (or Bronny), prepares to play basketball at the University of Southern California. Unfortunately, it’s been reported that Bronny experienced cardiac arrest this week. He’s thankfully recovering in the hospital right now and, as he does so, Stephen A. Smith, Trae Young and more are reaching out. 

News of Bronny James’ medical incident broke on Tuesday, as Shams Charania of The Athletic took to X to drop it. The journalist shared a statement he received from a spokesperson for the James family. Apparently, the 18-year-old James suffered from the medical ordeal during a workout. The message reads: 

In the aftermath, a number of notable names have been showing their support for the teen. Outspoken ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith shared a sweet shoutout for the McDonalds’ All-American while also providing a brief update regarding what he’s heard about his status:

As mentioned, Atlanta Hawks phenom Trae Young was another notable figure within the sports world to react. The NBA all star kept his sentiment brief, but it was sweet nonetheless:

Chris Broussard, who covers professional basketball for Fox Sports, took to X as well to show love to Bronny James. He expressed well wishes by sending prayers to the athlete and his family: 

Comic book writer Rob Liefeld – a noted sports fan – also weighed in on the sad turn of events. He reshared Shams Charania’s post and provided a short response: 

Bronny James made a name for himself as a strong point/shooting guard during his high school years at Los Angeles’ Sierra Canyon. For that reason, he was highly scouted by universities across the country during the past few years. After much public speculation on the matter, James announced his commitment to USC in May. He’s already emerging as a notable public figure (which is a point that fellow NBA kid Marcus Jordan mentioned recently). Amid all the attention though, James seems committed to his athletic career, and LeBron expressed pride after his son signed to attend the school. In June, both Bronny and the school jointly shared this sweet post as well:

It’s unfortunate to hear that the teen has experienced such an ordeal, but there’s comfort to be taken in the fact that he’s no longer in the ICU. One can only hope that he continues to improve and gets the rest he needs. In the meantime, Stephen A. Smith, Rob Liefeld and a host of others will likely continue to send him positive vibes.

We here at CinemaBlend wish Bronny James and his family the best as he continues to recover. 

Very few people get as excited about new Deadpool projects – from the movies and comic books to potential video games – than Rob Liefeld, the character’s creator. Talking about Deadpool and the anticipated sequel Deadpool 3 with Liefeld feels like injecting a can of Red Bull into a chamber of your heart, then holding on for dear life as the comics creator and super-passionate aficionada of pop culture and comic history whisks you away on a magical mystery tour through Marvel, DC, a little Lakers talk sprinkled in for good measure. Today’s topic was Liefeld’s return to Deadpool comics for a five-issue arc titled Deadpool: Badder Blood, a direct sequel to 2022’s Deadpool: Bad Blood. But before we dug into his latest project, I had to ask Liefeld about a Tweet that had us on the edge of our seats. 

Which Tweet? This one:

I can tell you, from my own personal experience, that Liefeld’s Tweet forced me to stay up two hours longer than I had anticipated that evening in case the first Set Photo from Deadpool 3 hit the Internet, as teased. After all, this third Deadpool movie already is bringing Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, and recent rumors have multiple other member of the 20th Century Fox X-Men team possibly returning, like Halle Berry as Storm and James Marsden as Cyclops. 

But back to that promised set photo. It never arrived on social media. Not that night. Not the following day. And not by the time I hopped on the phone to talk Deadpool: Badder Blood with Rob Liefeld. So, I asked him what the hell happened? And he told me:

As a means of proving how much things have changed since Deadpool movies were being made over at 20th Century Fox, Rob Liefeld told a story about the Deadpool 2 poster that hangs in his family’s living room. Apparently, Liefeld’s wife stood in front of the poster recently and pointed out that the tagline for the sequel proclaimed, “From the studio that killed Wolverine.” Liefeld quickly countered: 

That’s what the Deadpool movies need to be, even when part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not Deadpool’s job to fit in with the expanding story of the upcoming Marvel movies, several of which involve multiverses and possibly the rise of Kang the Conqueror. It’s his job to branch out on his own, possibly even taking the piss out of the pompous seriousness of the MCU, as only Deadpool (and, by extension, Ryan Reynolds) can. Reynolds already has teased a few major changes to Wolverine for Deadpool 3. At the same time, familiar cast members are being brought back for the sequel, though no work on Josh Brolin or Zazie Beetz just yet. 

In the meantime, be sure to pick up the first issue of Rob Liefeld’s five-issue Deadpool: Badder Blood, which opens with a crazy team-up between Wolverine and Cable, and brings back the formidable villain Thumper, who has deep personal connections to Wade Wilson. The series launches on June 7. Find more information on the books on Liefeld’s official Website.  

Movies that are going into production right now are in something of a difficult position because, due to the ongoing WGA strike, no writers are on the sets of the movies being filmed. This means that, among other things, there can be no changes to the scripts as they currently are. This could be a problem for Deadpool 3, where the jokes are often not scripted in advance. However, Deadpool’s comic book godfather Rob Liefeld points out that it may not be the problem it appears to be. 

While Ryan Reynolds has pointed out that he doesn’t technically ad-lib in the Deadpool movies, instead he writes multiple variations of a joke and tries them all out on set to see what works better. However, both options are off the table as things currently stand as no changes to scripts are possible until the current WGA strike is resolved. But as Rob Liefeld points out on Twitter, the big changes don’t happen on the set, but in the recording booth during post-production. 

While there have likely been a lot of changes and tweaks in the script on the set of the last two Deadpool movies, Liefeld is certainly correct that the “fun bits” likely happen during ADR, automated dialogue replacement, where actors re-record their lines after the fact. It’s a common part of the post-production process as frequently a line of dialogue may not get recorded cleanly on the set for any number of reasons.

Because Ryan Reynolds spends large portions of his time wearing a mask, much of his dialogue is not recorded cleanly and is going to need to be re-recorded anyway. This means the actor should have little problem reading the lines in the script as they are written, and then, assuming the strike is resolved down the road, going back and making every conceivable joke under the sun while doing ADR.

This won’t be a perfect solution of course. We traditionally see Ryan Reynolds without his mask for a significant period of time in each film, and ADR won’t help change those lines. This also won’t help the other actors who don’t wear masks. But the mask certainly could go a long way to making sure that Deadpool 3 still feels like a Deadpool movie even if the actors won’t have quite the same freedom that they had previously. 

The writers' strike is causing many productions to pause specifically this reason because not having a writer on the set can be a problem. However, Marvel specifically made the decision to move forward with two projects that were set to go in front of cameras. Deadpool 3 is filming now and Captain America: New World Order is scheduled to begin shooting very soon. Other Marvel projects, like Blade, have been officially delayed, due to that movie not yet having a completed script.

At this point there’s no indication that the WGA strike could end anytime soon, so Deadpool 3 could finish production with the strike still ongoing, But there will certainly need to be reshoots, and the post-production process takes a long time, and ADR is something that can still be done near the end of the entire process, so there’s plenty of time for this to be resolved. And of course, it’s also possible that the script for Deadpool 3 is hilarious just the way it is. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly growing, both on the small and silver screens. One of the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movies is definitely Shawn Levy's Deadpool 3, which will finally bring Ryan Reynolds' titular hero into the shared universe. The threequel is finally starting to film, and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has offered an update that'll please X-Men fans out there. It's all really happening!

After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and its properties, the door finally opened for characters like Deadpool, The X-Men, and the Fantastic Four to get in on the fun of the MCU. Fans were also delighted to learn that Deadpool 3 would feature the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, which is why so many fans are invested in what's coming next. Rob Liefeld recently tweeted out a tease about what's to come in that mysterious project, which reads:

Well, color me intrigued. While we knew that Deadpool 3 will finally reunite Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman on the big screen as their respective Marvel characters, it seems like that blockbuster is going to put a ton of emphasis on the latter hero. Although the question is exactly what Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds have up their sleeves for this mysterious blockbuster. But smart money says that plenty of fans are going go be flocking to theaters when it's finally released.

Hugh Jackman originally claimed to be retired from the role of Wolverine following the emotional ending of Logan. But as the Deadpool franchise became popular, Ryan Reynolds consistently pestered the Oscar-nominated actor to once again take up the claws opposite the Merc with a Mouth. And now that crossover is finally going to happen, and it should be fascinating to see how Jackman's signature character changes within a new franchise, and presumably within an R-rated project. Fingers crossed that more information comes sooner rather than later; Liefeld has also teased that he's going to post a set photo shortly. 

For his part, Ryan Reynolds has claimed that Deadpool 3 won't try to contradict the events of Logan. We'll presumably be seeing a much younger version of Wolverine, before that apocalyptic setting. But until more information is revealed/confirmed, smart money says that there are going to be plenty of fan theories and rumors swirling.

The cast of Deadpool 3 has been coming together, including plenty of familiar faces from the first two movies. But there are a few choice heroes that fans are wondering about. Namely Zazie Beetz' Domino and Josh Brolin's Cable, who both made their debut in Deadpool 2. They were set up to be big characters, but it's unclear if they'll be back for the threequel. Regarding Cable in particular, it seems like Wolverine might be the same type of foil to Wade Wilson.

Deadpool 3 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on November 8th, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

It’s been over a week since the big news was announced, but let’s take a moment to let it sink in again: Hugh Jackman is reprising Wolverine for Deadpool 3. For years, the actor said 2017’s Logan would remain his final outing as the popular Marvel Comics character, but he was coaxed out of retirement to don the adamantium claws one more time for a proper team-up with Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson (no, X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn’t count and you know it) in the upcoming Marvel movie. Now Jackman has shared a funny photo of himself with Deadpool, and many people, including Rob Liefeld, who co-created the Merc with the Mouth with Fabian Nicieza, provided captions for it.

While Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds share a well-known “feud,” it isn’t bad enough that they can’t be in the same room with one another. Case in point, Hugh Jackman shared this throwback photo on Instagram of that time Ryan Reynolds suited up as Deadpool and popped up to visit the Wolverine actor while he was robed up and brushing his teeth. Check it out:

As you an see, Hugh Jackman opened the floor for people to caption this unusual moment, and this was Rob Liefeld’s suggestion:

Rather than go the humorous route, Rob Liefeld praised Hugh Jackman for his contribution to the superhero movies landscape, with his caption being accompanied by raised hands and sword emojis. Liefeld has a point, as X-Men was one of the movies that popularized this genre, which subsequently paved the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s creation. Jackman’s Wolverine performance was among X-Men’s most praised elements, and if that movie hadn’t been a hit, there’s certainly a decent chance that Liefeld is right and we would have never gotten the MCU.

It was nice of Rob Liefeld to give Hugh Jackman props for his tenure as Wolverine, but enough sincerity! Let’s go over some of the amusing comments user shared in Jackman’s post, starting with BossLogic, who put together a fun clip earlier this week envisioning how the actor’s Wolverine return could happen:

Rather than reference anything Marvel-related, ethan_1511 decided to draw a parallel between this unusual pairing and a real-life scenario that many of you reading have likely dealt with more than once.

For those of you who are fans of Hugh Jackman’s musical work, brett.org_50 captioned the photograph by shooting down a sequel to a certain 2017 movie where he belted out tunes as P.T. Barnum (side note, The Greatest Showman can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription).

Finally, spidey_mom highlighted the fact that Deadpool dropped in on Hugh Jackman while he was practicing proper dental hygiene, which is all the more important when your dentist is… let’s just say permanently unavailable. 

You can look through Hugh Jackman’s post to see the other caption suggestions, but it’s a nice placeholder as we wait for Wolverine and Deadpool to join forces. Details on how the clawed mutant specifically fits into Deadpool 3 are being kept close to the chest, but Jackman and Reynolds have said that the threequel will not affect the ending of Logan. Still, there are plenty of Marvel questions that Jackman’s Wolverine return raises, and CinemaBlend will share those answers once they come in.

Directed by Shawn Levy and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Deadpool 3 hits theaters on September 6, 2024. If you’re looking to pass the time until the next big news drop for this project arrives, read through our guide going over watching the Marvel movies in order.

The Fox era of X-Men movies is over following the release of Dark Phoenix in 2019 and The New Mutants the year after, but this property isn’t done getting attention on the big screen by a long shot. Not only is the Marvel Cinematic Universe bringing in the main X-Men team at some point, but Ryan Reynolds is on deck to reprise Wade Wilson in Deadpool 3. So just how is the MCU going to throw mutants into the mix? Rob Liefeld, the co-creator of Deadpool, believes he already has it figured out.

CinemaBlend’s own Law Sharma had the opportunity to chat with Rob Liefeld on the red carpet for the Spider-Man: No Way Home world premiere, and here’s what the comic book creator had to say when asked about how he thinks Deadpool will be brought into the MCU:

So as Rob Liefeld sees it, rather than Deadpool and the X-Men already existing within the main MCU reality, they’ll be pulled in from another universe through a magical portal, whether it’s conjured by Doctor Strange or some other magical being. Spider-Man: No Way Home is indeed delving into the multiverse thanks to Spider-Man villains from other realities entering the MCU after something going wrong with a spell Doctor Strange casts to make the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. With No Way Home about to arrive in theaters, it won’t be much longer until we learn if the events of that movie will pave the way for the X-Men property to be set up in this superhero franchise.

Going the multiversal route would be the easiest way to set up Deadpool and the X-Men in the MCU. As it stands now, there hasn’t been any mention of mutants in the MCU, and even if an event like the Blip did somehow cause them to come into existence, it’d be a stretch to say there’s now a superhero team full of them operating in secret. By having mutants originate from another universe, they can have a well-established history without the audience having to be clued in on every little thing that’s happened to them. That also provides extra fodder for Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and his fourth wall-breaking shenanigans whenever he returns.

In fact, if the MCU really wanted to, it could bring back as many people from the original X-Men film franchise to join Ryan Reynolds in reprising their roles. That said, it seems likelier that the core X-Men team will be rebooted to give the property a fresh cinematic start. After watching people like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X for nearly many years, it’d be nice to have new interpretations of these characters to enjoy. And again, if that provides more material for Deadpool to riff with, we’re all the better for it.

For now, Marvel Studios is keeping tight-lipped about its plans for the X-Men, and all we know about Deadpool 3 (which will be R-rated, like its predecessors) is that it’s being written by Bob’s Burgers duo Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin. As always, keep your eyes locked on CinemaBlend for all the biggest news items concerning upcoming Marvel movies.

In 2019, Jake Gyllenhaal played Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home., who became one of the best MCU villains in recent years. Thanks to the character’s evil plot, a multiverse of madness may even open up in the next Spidey installment. Looking ahead, Gyllenhaal has just signed on to be part of another comic book movie, this time based on Rob Liefeld’s John Prophet, who has graced issues of Image Comics since the early ‘90s, but has yet to be seen in a movie. 

Jake Gyllenhaal will play John Prophet in an upcoming movie titled Prophet with Extraction director Sam Hargrave helming, per The Hollywood Reporter. Rob Liefeld, who is best known for co-creating Marvel's Deadpool, is also the comic book author behind Prophet, a man who volunteers for a German experiment near the end of World War II to feed his family, and in turn obtains superhuman strength. 

John Prophet sounds like a cross between Wolverine and Captain America considering he wakes up decades in the future, thanks to his superhuman powers, to find that the world has moved on past World War II, his daughter has grown up and KGB agents are after him to create super soldiers from his blood. This feels like a major role for Jake Gyllenhaal that will also introduce an underrated comic book character to the forefront. 

Prophet’s director Sam Hargrave was memorably a longtime stunt coordinator for the MCU films including Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Last year, Hargrave debuted as an action film director for Netflix’s Extraction, which starred Chris Hemsworth and was produced by the Russo Brothers. The movie became one of the most viewed Netflix original films ever, and Hargrave is currently getting ready to film the sequel. 

Prophet's script is being written by Marc Guggenheim, who has found success on The CW developing DC shows such as Arrow, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Guggenheim is also set to write and produce the upcoming HBO Max Green Lantern series starring Finn Wittrock. We don’t expect Prophet to get rolling for some time considering Hargrave is headed to film Extraction 2, but it looks like a solid creative team is coming together for the movie. 

Jake Gyllenhaal recently put out his Netflix film The Guilty, which had the actor playing a 9-1-1 dispatcher in a movie that was made during the pandemic under difficult restrictions. Next, he’ll star in Michael Bay’s Ambulance, in an action film also starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II about a heist that goes totally wrong. The movie is coming out February 18, 2022. While we wait for Prophet and these other exciting projects, check out what other upcoming movies are rounding out 2021 here on CinemaBlend. 

Over half a decade after he was unfaithfully depicted in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds’ incarnation of Wade Wilson finally got the cinematic treatment he deserved with 2016’s Deadpool and 2018’s Deadpool 2. While there are plans to make Deadpool 3, Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox has complicated its development, and if you ask Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, he thinks any future movies starring The Merc with the Mouth should be scrapped entirely.

During a recent interview, Rob Liefeld was asked if Deadpool could lead another video game, having previously done so in 2013. He responded:

It’s no secret that the current health crisis has hit the entertainment industry hard, including Disney. Not only were its theme parks closed down for several months, with some of those locations still shuttered, the Mouse House also had to delay many of its movies, including Mulan going from a March to August release (assuming that holds), and Black Widow’s move from May to November resulting in a drastic MCU scheduling shift. As Rob Liefeld sees it, because of all these complications, it’s not worth dedicating more time and energy into getting Deadpool 3 off the ground.

Continuing in his interview with IGN, Rob Liefeld posited that Disney is better off focusing its Deadpool-related efforts on the animation realm, be that with a video game or a TV series. In his words:

Rob Liefeld, who co-created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza, hasn’t minced words lately regarding his feelings about Deadpool’s cinematic future. Back in May, he claimed that there was no movement on Deadpool 3, and earlier this month, he said he’d be okay with another Deadpool movie never being made since he’s already had “two amazing experiences” on that front. When combined with how the pandemic has affected the world, Liefeld is comfortable with Deadpool’s future media endeavors being animated since those creative efforts are easier to pull off during social isolation.

Deadpool 3 hasn’t been officially been given the green light over at Marvel Studios, but Ryan Reynolds did say last December that the threequel was in development. While the X-Men property as a whole is expected to be rebooted to fit within the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, given Wade Wilson’s fourth wall-breaking nature, it should be easy enough to bring him into this franchise, though whether his shenanigans will continue to be framed through an R-rated lens or will now happen within PG-13 territory (like every other MCU movie) remains to be seen.

There was also an X-Force movie in development before the Disney/Fox merger, and though it’s unclear if that project could still happen, Liefeld is definitely down for Josh Brolin’s Cable to get his own film series. As far as Deadpool in animation goes, while there hasn’t been any talk about a new video game lately, there was once a TV series in the works from Donald and Stephen Glover for FXX, but it ended up being scrapped due to creative differences.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news concerning Deadpool on film and TV, and look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what the MCU has coming up in Phase 4 and beyond.

One of the best dynamics that came out of Deadpool 2 was watching Ryan Reynold’s sass go toe-to-toe with Josh Brolin’s stern, no-nonsense attitude as Cable. Thanks to Josh Brolin’s performance, Cable’s character took on a life of his own in the film. As it so happens, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld thinks Cable should have his own standalone movie.

According to Collider, Rob Liefeld has made his peace with the possibility that there might not be another Deadpool movie. However, he’s come out in support of letting Josh Brolin’s Cable branch out into a movie series of his own. Here’s what Liefeld had to say:

I think most Marvel fans would be thrilled to hear that Cable is getting his own standalone movie. As Rob Liefeld said, he’s had a long run in the comics. In that world, he has famous parents in Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (the latter being the clone of Jean Grey), and is the leader of the X-Force. Needless to say there’s plenty of source material to mine for a great movie.

And it’s no joke that Josh Brolin wants back in as Cable. Earlier this year, Rob Liefeld said Josh Brolin is “itching” to play the character again. One reason he wants to return is because he didn’t think his performance was all that good. He wants another crack at the role to improve on it, saying:

Now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, there’s been a lot of talk about what the future of the X-Men and Deadpool might look like. Should Deadpool be in the MCU or continue to do his own thing? When will the X-Men be part of the MCU? For Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool, he says he sees “infinite possibility” either way.

While Deadpool’s character almost demands an R-rating, Cable’s character could easily hop into his own PG-13 movie series, whether it's being part of an X-Force movie or even just sliding right over into the MCU. He has much more malleability to fit in Marvel’s current framework.

Hopefully Marvel can find a way to creatively include him and the other X-Men into their sandbox. If it does, it could make things even more interesting than they already are for the MCU. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

As comic book movies have become the most profitable genre in the film world, plenty of studios have gotten in on the superhero action. But certain properties have brought something unique to the table and become the peak of popularity, like Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool. The Merc with the Mouth became a household name thanks to the original 2016 blockbuster, and the sequel was similarly successful. Fans have been waiting for news on Deadpool 3 since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and its properties, but now the character's creator Liefeld has come out saying that he no longer cares if the threequel becomes a reality.

Before 20th Century Fox was acquired by Disney, there were early talks of both Deadpool 3 and an X-Force spinoff happening sometime in the future. But there's been no news from the House of Mouse regarding the R-rated franchise's future, and whether or not Wade Wilson might crossover with the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now Rob Liefeld has shared his latest thoughts on this holdup, saying:

Well, that was honest. Like the character he created, Rob Liefeld isn't known for holding his tongue when it comes to all things Marvel, and specifically Deadpool. And while he previously expressed disappointment that Disney seemingly hasn't made any concrete steps forward for Deadpool 3, Liefeld seems to have stopped holding out hope regarding the film franchise's future. And instead, he's just happy with the work that was done in the previous two installments.

Rob Liefeld's comments to Collider is an unexpected aboutface for the comic book writer, who brought the Merc with a Mouth to life on the page for the very first time. He's understandably one of the Deadpool franchise's most dedicated fans, and has been eager to see Ryan Reynolds' foul mouthed antihero return to theaters. And while the fandom continues waiting on pins and needles for word, Liefeld seems to be letting it go for the time being.

The first two Deadpool movies made a ton of money at the box office, so it seems like only a matter of time before Disney brings Wade Wilson back to the big screen. But there's unfortunately been no indication as to when this might happen. Furthermore, there are a ton of questions about how the House of Mouse might alter the property under new leadership.

First and foremost, fan are hoping that Deadpool 3 will have a hard R rating, just as its predecessors were. This would allow Ryan Reynolds and company to make an authentic threequel, without having to hold back on language or content. Additionally, Marvel fans are eager to see if Deadpool manages to eventually crossover into the MCU, interacting with characters like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on all things Deadpool as more details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

While superhero movies are everywhere nowadays, certain franchises have managed to rise to the top as fan favorite and stand among the rest. One of the properties is Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool franchise, which broke new ground as an R-rated, fourth-wall breaking comic book romp. Deadpool 2 was another big success, so fans have been wondering when the threequel might arrive in theaters. But Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox made things far more complicated, as the House of Mouse will now decide if/when the Deadpool 3 gets made. Rob Liefeld created the character of Deadpool on the page, and he recently clarified some recent comments he made about Disney and the Deadpool threequel.

Rob Liefeld is always open about Deadpool's life on the page and screen, often using social media to directly communicate with the fans. He was recently quoted blaming Disney for the lack of progress on Deadpool 3, since there hasn't been any indication as to the franchise's future and the possibility of appearing in the MCU. Now Liefeld has further expanded upon his feelings on the matter, saying:

It looks Rob Liefeld's comments about Deadpool's future in theaters got a ton of attention online. And while he stands by his feelings about Disney having no plans to bring the highly anticipated sequel to life, he also explained that he's not worried about the movie getting made eventually.

Rob Liefeld's latest Deadpool 3 comments come to us from io9, as they caught up with the comic book visionary after his latest statement about the Deadpool sequel went viral. Liefeld still believes that no progress is being made on a threequel by Disney and 20th Century Pictures, and he doesn't seem to regret his comments. Although he admits that not being honest might make his life a little easier moving forward.

Considering how successful the first Deadpool movies were, it seems like an easy decision for Disney and the newly renamed 20th Century Pictures to move forward with a third movie or the planned X-Force spinoff. But there's been no indication for these plans, with the current state of the entertainment industry only further complicating things. Global health concerns have shut down film sets, shifting release dates for a variety of projects. As such, there's no telling when Ryan Reynolds and company might start work on the Deadpool franchise again.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on all things Deadpool as details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

CinemaBlend participates in affiliate programs with various companies. We may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via links.

It's no secret that the superhero genre has become a behemoth presence in the film world. And while countless franchises have hit theaters coming from various cinematic universes, a few have risen to the top as fan favorites. Chief among them is Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, which broke new ground with an R-rated, fourth wall-breaking antihero. Deadpool 2 was another massive hit, but there's no indication as to when work on the upcoming threequel might begin. And Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld is holding Marvel Studios personally responsible for this delay.

Deadpool's future in theaters became murky after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and its various properties. It's currently unclear if Ryan Reynolds' murderous title character will join the MCU, or if Disney will keep him in his own separate universe. There hasn't been any news about Deadpool 3 or the X-Force movie, and Rob Liefeld believes this is due to the studio's current plans for the Marvel Shared Universe. As he put it,

Well, he didn't mince words. It looks like Rob Liefeld wants to see his original character return to the big screen sooner rather than later. And that's why he's seemingly frustrated with the lack of development on Deadpool 3; there haven't been any major steps forward. So Liefeld is forced to wait for an update like the rest of us.

Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox resulted in a ton of questions, especially regarding the company's comic book properties. Deadpool, the X-Men, and Fantastic Four was all previously owned by Fox, so moviegoers are eager to see if they finally appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after all these years.

Marvel fans can re-watch the MCU (sans Deadpool) on Disney+. You can use this link for a free 7-day trial to the streaming service.

But it looks like Rob Liefeld isn't feeling too hopeful about the merger, and what that might mean for the Deadpool franchise. As he explained later in his conversation with Comic Book,

Talk about honesty. While some movie fans are hoping that Disney's ownership of the Deadpool franchise will open new narrative doors within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rob Liefeld seems to believe that the change in leadership is actually holding the property back. Mostly because there hasn't been any news regarding when development might kick up for Deadpool 3.

The powers that be at Disney previously indicated that Deadpool 3 wouldn't make any drastic changes to the franchise regarding its content and rating. The movie would be presumably brought to theaters courtesy of the recently renamed 20th Century Pictures. But there's also been no timeline as to when the threequel will kick up production.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on all things Deadpool as details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

It’s been over 30 years since Watchmen was first published, and not only is it still considered to be one of the greatest comic book stories of all time, it’s also been labeled a triumph of American literature in general. But if you ask longtime comic book writer and artist Ron Liefeld, the 2009 Watchmen movie is the superior version of the story originally delivered by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons.

Recently, comic book retailer Dennis Barger posted two screenshots highlighting the smiley face button Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s The Comedian is wearing at the beginning of Watchmen, where audiences saw the fight that culminated in Comedian being thrown out of his apartment window. Barger’s Facebook post included the caption “The best thing Snyder ever did!!!”, leading Rob Liefeld to say the following in the comments:

It’s unclear what exactly Rob Liefeld is referring to by the ending. As is usually the case with film adaptations, Watchmen took some creative liberties with the source material, so Liefeld could be addressing anything from how Doctor Manhattan was blamed for New York City’s destruction rather than a giant, faux-alien squid, or how Nite-Owl witnessed Manhattan killing Rorschach.

Ultimately both Watchmen stories conclude the same way: with Rorschach’s journal coming close to being discovered at The New Frontiersman, and the audience being left to guess whether or not the truth will come out. Nevertheless, if given a choice between the original Watchmen or the film adaptation, Rob Liefeld (whose work in the comic book industry includes co-creating characters like Cable and Deadpool, and being one of Image Comics’ founders) will take the latter over the former.

Rob Liefeld certainly isn’t alone in his admiration for the Watchmen movie; at the time of its release, it was met with polarizing reception, with some folks being over the moon for it and others harshly criticizing it. Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum, there’s no denying that a decade later, Watchmen continues to be a talking point among the comic book fan community.

Watchmen was Zack Snyder’s second time tackling a comic book adaptation, the first being 2007’s 300, and he would later leave his mark on DC Comics universe with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Snyder is currently hard at work on his upcoming Netflix movie Army of the Dead.

While the Watchmen movie didn’t get a film sequel, the mythos as a whole will be framed in a new light in HBO’s Watchmen TV series, which is set several decades after the events of the original tale. So far three of the original Watchmen characters are confirmed to appear in the series: Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, played by Jeremy Irons; Laurie Blake/Silk Spectre II, played by Jean Smart; and Doctor Manhattan, whose actor hasn’t been identified yet.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest in movie news. Keep track of what’s hitting theaters for the rest of the year in our 2019 release schedule.

Warning: spoilers for Hobbs & Shaw are going to come into play with this article. So if you haven’t seen the film yet, turn around and come back once you’re current.

After Hobbs & Shaw landed a handful of surprise cameos, a new team of super spies waiting in the wings ever since those reveals were made to the world. That’s not all that the surprise appearance of Ryan Reynolds in the world of Hobbs & Shaw has done though, as now Deadpool comic writer Rob Liefeld is interested in putting Dwayne Johnson in the role of X-Force member Garrison Kane.

Take a look at Liefeld’s bold proclamation to make this happen, below:

A cyborg member of the X-Force, code named “Weapon X”, Garrison Kane was supposed to be in the very first Deadpool movie. Unfortunately, as the property still wasn’t a tested box office brand, and the budget was tight enough for the R-rated comedy romp as it was, Kane was cut so the film didn’t have to spend the extra money to give him robotic arms that could change shape.

That’s not so much a problem in the current era of the character, as both Deadpool films have brought in a collective $1.5 billion worldwide, R-rating intact. There’s still no definitive word on whether or not the Fox/Disney merger will yield a new Deadpool film in the near future, or even if the plans to bring the X-Force to theaters is still in the cards.

It is theorized/joked that Phase 5 might see Deadpool’s cinematic return, which could be yet another case of Ryan Reynolds trying to manifest his franchise into reality through his own sarcastic version of The Secret. Should that idea need some further weight to push it into the win column, casting Dwayne Johnson as Garrison Kane would be one hell of a coup that could make three straight hits in the world of X-Men adjacent mutants.

Uncertainty aside, there’s another important party that seems anxious to bring Garrison Kane to the Deadpool/X-Force cinematic universe. And sure enough, it’s Johnson himself, as he responded to Rob Liefeld’s hypothetical casting wishes with a Tweet that seems to tip towards the affirmative:

It’s absolutely true that Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson have pretty damned good chemistry, especially considering his Hobbs & Shaw cameo is featured in only a handful of moments in the film’s action plot. That friendship only has room to grow, considering the post-credits scenes to the film have Reynolds’ Agent Locke still in action, and setting up the presence of a new virus that will be chased around all over the world.

Should this X-Force casting find its way into reality, that almost seems like it’d make the two actors best on-screen buddies, as they’d be potentially kicking ass yet again. Only this time, there’d be a lot more CGI, and definitely more swearing, than their previous meet-up.

For now though, this is just a couple of friends, trying to set up a playdate that could become a multi-million dollar success. Worlds are turned on such thoughts, and all we have to do is wait for that light on the horizon before we can get truly excited.

Hobbs & Shaw is currently in theaters, with no immediate plans for a Deadpool sequel, or an X-Force movie for that matter, being known to the public at large.

It's been nearly two years since Justice League arrived in theaters, and brought together DC's finest heroes their first live-action adaptation. On the heels of Wonder Woman's release, expectations were high for Zack Snyder to deliver the cinematic universe he began. Unfortunately, family tragedy struck the director, and Joss Whedon stepped in to complete the project-- changing some of the narrative beats in the process.

Reshoots for Justice League were extensive, and the final product left much to be desired. The theatrical cut was a bit of a frankenstein film, with both directors' visions dueling onscreen in front of the audience. And since its release, there has been a never-ending campaign from certain DC fans for the #SnyderCut, and the conversation hasn't really slowed since. Now Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has voiced his support for the campaign, on social media. Check it out.

And just like that, one of the most visible comic book figures has put his support behind the long-awaited Snyder Cut. But there's been conflicting reports regarding if that cut actually exists, so it seems the conversation is going to continue until the studio gives a final answer on the alternate cut's possible release.

Rob Liefeld's tweet is sure to excite cinephiles who are holding out hope for another version of Justice League. The 2017 blockbuster was a long time coming, and had the potential to really kick the DCEU into high gear. But the final cut had noticeable recuts and poor CGI, and didn't contain a compelling enough to story to keep the movie afloat.

Ultimately Justice League was a box office disappointment, and didn't fare with with either critics or audiences. This is what started the Snyder Cut campaign started, as some fans believed the 300 director would have delivered a better final product. The discussion revolving around the #SnyderCut has only continued in the past year and change. In fact, the movement will have a significant presence at this year's San Deigo Comic-Con, after crowdfunding a budget to fly a banner over the convention center.

Since Justice League's theatrical cut hit theaters, Warner Bros. has pivoted and reworked the DC live-action universe. Crossover-heavy movies have faded away, allowing directors to helm more capsulated stories. It's a method that worked out well for both Aquaman and Shazam!, which didn't feature any appearances by members of the The League.

Related: Justice League's Ray Fisher Would 'Absolutely' Release The Snyder Cut

While the release of the mythical Snyder Cut seems unlikely, it would be a way for the movie to make more money. Justice League had a massive budget, and ended up losing an estimated $60 million as a result of its poor box office performance. There is clearly a strong contingent of fans who want to see the alternate version of the movie, if it even exists.

As for Rob Liefeld, he'll have to wait and see what Disney does with the Deadpool franchise, following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Will he finally join the MCU? Only time will tell.

The next installment in the DCEU is Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Sooner or later there will be a new Wolverine. That much is certain now that Hugh Jackman is done and the X-Men are almost assuredly bound for the MCU. Who will play Logan next is sure to be a point of rampant speculation and civil internet discussion, with everyone having their own opinion on the matter. Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld for one won’t be happy if the recent rumors about the next Wolverine wind up being true. Take a look.

Well, consider Rob Liefeld not a fan of the whole Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as the new Wolverine idea. In fact, he seems like he’d prefer to cast Avada Kedavra on the whole thing and then obliviate himself to forget he ever heard it. He doesn’t like the idea of Zac Efron in the role either, even if he has the muscles for it.

Rob Liefeld instead seems to prefer an unknown be cast as the next Wolverine, as was the case when Hugh Jackman took on the role. Hugh Jackman’s credits were quite limited prior to his casting in 2000’s X-Men and he was an unknown to most audiences. He still faced backlash for not looking the part, but we all saw how he became Wolverine.

In his tweet, Rob Liefeld inadvertently touches on something that any name actor will face when taking on the role of Wolverine. Hugh Jackman faced an uphill battle to win over fickle comic book fans who knew that Wolverine is 5’3”, not 6’1”, but he didn’t have any established image in audiences’ head either. Daniel Radcliffe is already primarily known for one massive franchise and that’s probably how Rob Liefeld sees him.

Daniel Radcliffe and Zac Efron can certainly break out of their signature roles or types, but you can understand Rob Liefeld’s argument that the next Wolverine ought to be an unknown so they can come in with a blank slate. That person can then have the best chance at being Wolverine in the way that Hugh Jackman was.

Rob Liefeld doesn’t touch on any qualities that he would like the next Wolverine to have, but he wants him to be an unknown. Of course Rob Liefeld has little to worry about now, since the discussion around Daniel Radcliffe and Zac Efron in the role doesn’t seem to be based on any real evidence. It is simply rumor that has served as fodder for fan discussion.

The Daniel Radcliffe rumor started when the actor jokingly said in an interview that he is the next Wolverine. This naturally started the rumor mill for people who didn’t know the context and it resulted in some admittedly, pretty compelling fan art. The actor has since affirmed that it was just a joke.

While Daniel Radcliffe is not the new Wolverine, at least not yet, someone will have to wear the claws at some point. It could be a while before we find out whom though because there is not public ETA for the X-Men joining the MCU.

Personally, I’m not adamantly against the idea of Radcliffe or Efron as Logan, but I think that even if Marvel wants to go younger, they both look a little too young, though their height is right. I tend to agree with Rob Liefeld though that an unknown would be the best option if Marvel can find someone right for the role.

Let us know what you think in the poll below and check out our 2019 release schedule to see all the biggest movies you can look forward to this year.

This poll is no longer available.

Last year, Deadpool 2 finally brought the X-Force to the big screen with the introduction of characters like Cable and Domino, and from there the plan was to spotlight the militaristic team of mutants in their own movie, which has been in development since 2013. However, there hasn't been any major updates on the X-Force movie in a while, and Rob Liefeld, co-creator of both Deadpool and X-Force, believes the project is now dead as a result of the 20th Century Fox-Disney merger. In his words:

Rob Liefeld's comment was in response to a rumor shared by Daniel Richtman on Twitter, which claimed that although X-Force, unlike all the other Marvel movies in development at Fox, isn't technically considered "dead," it might as well be since filming would supposedly need to begin in the next two months, and that's not happening. Evidently Liefeld believes this information is accurate and blames it on Fox soon being absorbed into Disney, meaning Marvel Studios will finally be able to use the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties.

Since the plan is for these heroes and villains to eventually be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's to be expected that Marvel will want to develop its own X-Men projects rather than stick with what Fox was working on, hence why it's not surprising to hear that X-Force could be among the casualties. However, for now, X-Force's cancellation remains officially unconfirmed. It's also possible that the X-Force could be retooled to fit within the MCU, especially if Ryan Reynolds is kept around as Deadpool. After all, it'd be easy enough for the Merc with the Mouth to transition from the Fox-verse to the MCU thanks to his penchant for breaking the fourth wall.

When the X-Force movie was first announced, Truth or Dare's Jeff Wadlow was hired to write and direct the project, but because 20th Century Fox prioritized making Deadpool, Wadlow's version of X-Force never moved forward. In February 2017, The Grey's Joe Carnahan signed on to direct and co-write X-Force, but more than half a year later, The Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard replaced Carnahan. Goddard said last summer that he was waiting to finish Bad Times at the El Royale before working on X-Force, but that movie came out last October. So even if Goddard is writing the X-Force script now, time is not on his side with the Fox-Disney merger looming.

As things stand now, there are two more Fox-era X-Men projects definitely hitting theaters. Dark Phoenix arrives in June and aims to deliver a better adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga comic book storyline, and The New Mutants (which was originally supposed to be released in April 2017) will follow in August and show five young mutants being trapped in a secret facility.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for any updates concerning X-Force and the rest of the X-Men franchise. For now, look through our 2019 release schedule to see what other movies come out this year.

It's no secret that superhero movies are everywhere. The comic book genre has become the most profitable in the entertainment world, with generations of fans eager to jump back into theaters for more action, adventure, and laughs. Given the myriad shared universes currently in play, certain actors have played multiple comic book roles, including Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin, and Ryan Reynolds.

While Ryan Reynolds is best known for playing the foul mouthed title character of the Deadpool franchise, he was briefly on the DC side of things with 2011's Green Lantern. It's a project that hasn't aged well, and has been the butt of plenty of jokes, including the wild mid-credits scene of Deadpool 2. But Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld is hoping Reynolds could take the ring back up, recently saying:

Despite Deadpool being one of the most popular comic book characters in the business right now, it looks like Rob Liefeld is still holding out hope for Ryan Reynolds to jump back over to DC. And considering how absent the Lanterns have been in the DC Universe thus far, he's got a point.

Rob Liefeld recently shard his Green Lantern hopes for Ryan Reynolds over on Twitter. Liefeld is very generous with his time on the social media outlet, communicating directly with fans of Wade Wilson. He also weighs in on all things comic books, considering his tenure crating characters like Deadpool and Cable. And a possible Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds reprising Hal Jordan is something Liefeld would like to see sometime in the future.

It took a while for Ryan Reynolds to find his superhero niche, after being involved in projects like Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds has been vocal about his disappointment in both roles, and brutally murdered them in Deadpool 2. Still, there are some DC fans who want to see what he could do with DC's Hal Jordan in the current DC Universe.

The DCEU hasn't used the Green Lanterns at all thus far, save for a brief cameo in Justice League's flashback sequence. The Green Lantern Corps. movie is one of the many DC projects that have been announced, with the blockbuster currently set for a 2020 release. This means that Warner Bros. will have to get moving on the still developing project, while balancing the upcoming releases of Shazam!, Joker, and Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

If all goes as planned, Green Lantern Corps. will arrive in theaters on July 24th, 2020. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.

The holiday season has arrived and among all the jolly reasons to take a trip to the movies this month is Once Upon a Deadpool. That's right, Wade Wilson is trying to make Santa's nice list, because the upcoming PG-13 Deadpool 2 (which includes a yet-to-be-seen nod toThe Princess Bride) is targeted for the whole family. Deadpool creator, Rob Liefeld has just seen the film and has a rave review to share. Here's what he said:

Per Rob Liefeld's review of Once Upon a Deadpool on Instagram, the unique PG-13 cut of has put in the maximum effort and shows it. Much of Liefeld's high praise goes to Fred Savage's addition to the film, and it looks like he will somehow play an antagonist to Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool in the limited engagement.

In the film, the Merc with a Mouth will kidnap the actor and place him in the clothes and setting he was in as a kid in The Princess Bride 31 years ago, in order to read him a family-friendly iteration of Deadpool 2. In the trailer for Once Upon a Deadpool, Fred Savage isn't particularly happy to be there with him and fires insults fourth-wall-breaking at him, such as how Deadpool isn't part of the MCU because of his ties with Fox.

Looks like there's much more to the pair's unlikely pairing that left quite the positive impression on the Deadpool creator. Considering how well Rob Liefeld knows the title character, his opinions has extra importance to the fandom.

Looks like there's much more to the pair's unlikely pairing that left quite the positive impression on the Deadpool creator. Considering how well Rob Liefeld knows the title character, his opinions has extra importance to the fandom.

Another key element to Once Upon a Deadpool will be its more wholesome approach to the summer blockbuster. Rob Liefeld also particularly loved how the filmmakers tackled this and it looks like he can't wait to share the film with the whole family. The writers of Deadpool 2 previously told CinemaBlend that parents and kids have been at odds with the film due to its R-rating and this release aims to share the film with a wider audience.

What makes me especially excited for Once Upon a Deadpool after Rob Liefeld's comments on it, is how he say it "somehow improves upon the last one." The franchise has been incredible and deeply entertaining so far and it's nice to hear that this re-release of sorts not only is catering to more people but also adding to the sequel in a way that makes it even more entertaining than the first cut.

Moviegoers will have the chance to see for themselves when Once Upon a Deadpool comes to theaters on December 12.

Moviegoers will have the chance to see for themselves when Once Upon a Deadpool comes to theaters on December 12.

While superhero movies have become commonplace in the past decade, there are certain franchises that stand out from the crowd. Chief among them is Deadpool, as its fourth-wall breaking protagonist continually addresses the audiences, pokes fun at the superhero genre, and makes any assortment of shocking and hilarious jokes. Wade Wilson takes particular aim at the comic book world, including his creator Rob Liefeld. Because during Domino's awesome lucky sequence in Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson goes on a rant about Domino's creator (also Liefeld), being a "coked out glass pipe sucker freak show comic book artist", also joking that he can't draw feet. Liefeld recently posted this clip, which was followed up by a quick apology by Ryan Reynolds himself.

While Rob Liefeld definitely has a good sense of humor about his Deadpool 2 joke (I mean, he created the wise cracker himself), Ryan Reynolds actually issued a rare apology. Still messing around, Reynolds posted one quick word to Liefeld's Instagram:

While Ryan Reynolds isn't one to apologize for his jokes, especially those used in Deadpool, the guy is extremely active on social media. Reynolds has basically become synonymous with his Marvel character at this point, and seems hyper aware of any Deadpool-related conversation happening online. So when Rob Liefeld sets up the opportunity for joke, Reynolds is going to take it. And just like that, hilarity ensues.

Of course, Rob Liefeld isn't the only comic book figure that Wade Wilson took aim at during the course of Deadpool 2. And since that joke was during Domino's absolutely breathtaking action sequence, it was likely lost on audiences at first. More obvious were the jokes about DC's extremely dark Snyderverse, Deadpool's lack of famous X-Men, and the like. But Liefeld got his own share of licks, as is customary in the beloved property.

It should be interesting to see what the future holds for the Deadpool franchise. The original movie was almost solely focused on its title character, while Deadpool 2 became much more of an ensemble project. While the original X-Force roster met a grisly end, there was an increased presence for Colossus and Negasonic, as well as newcomers Domino, Cable, and Firefist. Ryan Reynolds has teased that the X-Force movie would be coming soon, possibly before Deadpool gets a proper threequel. And with the Disney and Fox merger still looming in the background, there's also the possibility that Deadpool and his buddies could eventually show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper.

Deadpool 2 is currently available for home purchase. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

With the release of Deadpool 2 in June, another X-Men fan favorite was finally introduced to the big screen: Cable, played by Josh Brolin. Like Deadpool, Cable was created by Rob Liefeld, and while the Merc with the Mouth and the time-traveling cybernetic soldier initially started out as adversaries, by the end of the sequel, they had become allies. Deadpool and Cable, as well as Domino, will next appear in X-Force, but plot details are still being close to the chest, like the identity of the villain. However, Liefeld may have hinted that the X-Force movie could see Stryfe, Cable's evil clone, being the main antagonist. When directly asked if Stryfe will show up in X-Force, Liefeld responded:

Using Stryfe in X-Force would make sense. Cable doesn't have a large rogues gallery to call his own, but Stryfe has definitely given him a lot of trouble over the years, to the point that some might consider Stryfe Cable's arch-nemesis. And, as Rob Liefeld pointed out while speaking with Nerdist, if you have Josh Brolin as Cable, then that paves the way for him to give dual performances in X-Force. All this being said, Liefeld seemingly cast some doubt on whether we'll actually see Stryfe on the big screen with the following tweet.

So for now, Stryfe is far from confirmed to appear in X-Force, but he's certainly a worthy candidate to be the movie's villain. In the comics, Stryfe was cloned from the infant Cable, a.k.a. Nathan Summers, when it looked like he might die from the techno-organic virus. Cable ended up surviving, but Stryfe was soon stolen by Apocalypse to serve as a host body for him upon reaching adulthood. That never happened, and the adult Stryfe instead became one of Cable's greatest opponents. Like Cable, Stryfe also traveled back in time to the present day, where he formed the Mutant Liberation Front. Unlike Cable, whose powers are continually being used the keep the techno-organic virus at bay, Stryfe has full control of his natural telekinetic and telepathic abilities.

Warning: SPOILERS for Deadpool 2 are ahead!

Deadpool 2 briefly touched on Cable's life in the future, but aside from his family being killed by Russell Collins (which has been averted), we don't know anything about his past. Cable is stuck in the present now, but that's not to say that Stryfe couldn't come from a new future to wreak havoc or be cloned from Cable now and have his growth accelerated. Of course, creative liberties come with adapting comic book material into superhero movies, and that's especially true when working in Deadpool's corner of the X-Men franchise. So even if Josh Brolin were to pull double duty as Cable and Stryfe in X-Force, it's possible their dynamic wouldn't be quite the same as it is on the printed page.

Directed by Drew Goddard, X-Force doesn't have an assigned release date yet, but production is scheduled to begin this fall. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates, and look through our X-Men film guide to find out what other projects are in development for the mutant-filled franchise.

Rob Liefeld's name always will be associated with Deadpool. Especially now, as the Merc with the Mouth expands to be a global sensation (thanks to two massively successful blockbuster features), Deadpool is becoming more and more of a household name -- and Liefeld's name is growing alongside it. But Wade Wilson isn't Liefeld's only creation from the comic-book realm, and another one -- Prophet -- is going to make a big-screen splash thanks to a production deal with Studio 8 that will introduce the character to movie theaters.

Described by some as the anti-Captain America, John Prophet is a World War II soldier who is put on ice and ordered to emerge in a distant future to complete a mission. Only, Prophet wakes up from his cryogenic sleep too soon, and spends his time adjusting to a world he doesn't understand, seeking to complete a mission that he can not find. During Comic-Con, Rob Liefeld stopped by the CinemaBlend video suite to talk Deadpool 2 and Prophet, and he told us the type of Prophet movie that he's hoping to help create:

They are, and it's a genre that goes unexplored in this day and age, unless it's being spoofed or sent up in comedies. Shane Black might be bringing that '80s action tone back in The Predator. And if Robert Liefeld and his creative team have their way, then Prophet will go a long way to bringing this style back to theaters.

But will it have any similarities to the two Deadpool movies? Rob Liefeld opened up and said:

Some of the humor will come from the fact that Prophet is awakened after a long time in slumber. They haven't determined if it will be a 30-year gap, or as much as an 80-year gap that he will have been out of commission. But there will be a fish-out-of-water component to the movie that Rob Liefeld is excited to explore. He talked to us about how much technology will have evolved, with the character playing catch up on a modern society. Imagine going to sleep in the 1950s, and waking up to try and figure out what an iPhone is. Could make for an entertaining subplot.

Prophet is very much in the early stages. We will continue to track its progress as it makes its way to theaters.

Deadpool is one of the most popular comic book characters on the big screen at a time when the movies are full of them. As a result, his creator Rob Liefeld has received a lot of attention for his other comic creations. Now, it looks like another of Liefeld's characters is on the way to the big screen. Studio 8 has picked up the rights to the character Prophet, with an eye toward developing an entire franchise around the character.

If Deadpool is the anti-X-Men, then Prophet is the anti-Captain America. John Prophet is a super soldier who gets cryogenically frozen for a mission in the future, but he wakes instead in the modern day. Without the mission he was created for, he is somewhat lost and has difficulty functioning in a modern world he was not raised in. He's also been used as a weapon by people with less than noble ends, something Prophet has to deal with and overcome.

His description doesn't sound all that different from another "anti-Captain America" character that movie fans might be more familiar with, The Winter Soldier, though Prophet's existence in comics predates the Winter Soldier by more than a decade. Both are cryogenically frozen men used as weapons by people with evil intent who eventually have to come to terms with their previous evil deeds while trying to live better lives going forward.

It's certainly unsurprising that Rob Liefeld's catalog of characters is getting a closer look. He's created dozens of comic book characters in his career and considering the success that Deadpool is having, other studios would love to make that lightning strike twice. Part of the problem, of course, is that few of Liefeld's creations are quite as well known as Deadpool, or the associated characters like Cable. That's not a dealbreaker, even Deadpool wasn't exactly a household name for your average movie fan, but the fact that the character had a relationship to the existing X-Men characters certainly helped. Prophet exists in an entirely separate universe, having been created for Image Comics rather than Marvel.

That being said, John Prophet does exist within a different comics universe. The character originally debuted in the Youngbloods comics series before being spun off into his own title, and while it appears the current deal being reported by The Wrap is limited to the Prophet character, if the studio is already eyeing Prophet as a franchise, one has to assume that a cinematic universe is at least an idea that's on the table. If Prophet is successful perhaps Studio 8 will look at picking up the rights to associated characters as well.

Ryan Reynolds has been in a lot of comic book movies, and even by his own estimation, not all of them worked. His most infamous comic book movie was 2011's Green Lantern, which he has routinely lampooned during his tenure as Wade Wilson in the Deadpool franchise. Fans have largely welcomed Reynolds' jump from Hal Jordan to Deadpool, and it turns out that the Canadian actor actually filmed the now-famous Deadpool test footage the weekend Green Lantern opened. During a panel appearance at Las Vegas Comic-Con, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld explained:

The leaked Deadpool test footage has become an iconic element of the modern superhero genre. It created the fan fervor to get the X-Men sub-franchise off the ground, and as Rob Liefeld explained during his recent panel appearance at Las Vegas Comic-Con, that footage is older than some people realize. Ryan Reynolds was hard at work putting that footage together with director Tim Miller at Blur Studios the weekend his ill-fated DC solo movie hit theaters.

This anecdote already adds fuel to the notion that Ryan Reynolds was looking beyond Green Lantern well before the movie flopped. In fact, addressing the film in a recent interview, Reynolds even admitted that he has never actually watched it in its entirety. He has also not shied away from leveling criticism at the movie, noting in other interviews that Green Lantern (unlike something like Deadpool) never managed to carve out a real identity for itself or come to the table with a specific voice that audiences could latch onto and connect with.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Ryan Reynolds has arguably become inextricable from the character of Wade Wilson. Few actors have ever melded with their respective on-screen counterpart in such a profoundly fitting way, and the Deadpool franchise has gone on to become one of the comic book movie genre's most beloved properties. Moreover, the Deadpool franchise has become a box office juggernaut (something Green Lantern ultimately failed to achieve in its run), so the future looks brighter than ever for Reynolds and his time under a mask.

For now, you can still catch Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2. We will bring you more information related to all of the upcoming superhero movies on the horizon, so make sure to also head over to our comprehensive 2018 movie premiere guide to see what else is coming this year!

Back in 2016, comic book creator Rob Liefeld got to watch as his lesser-known, foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking character Deadpool, burst into the public conscious with an incredible solo film debut. The Merc with a Mouth captured the zeitgeist and next week Deadpool is getting a sequel that hopes to repeat the original's success. Deadpool 2 returns the anti-hero to the big screen and this time, he will be accompanied by some of Rob Liefeld's other creations: Domino and Cable as well as other X-Force members. So what did Rob Liefeld think about how well Deadpool 2 pulled it all off? Well, lets just say he got a little misty-eyed, take a look.

Tears of joy are about as ringing an endorsement as a movie can get. And from someone with such a personal attachment to the material as Rob Liefeld, they mean even more. Now I am really curious about the ending of Deadpool 2 and what sort of brilliant song choice closes the show. Rob Liefeld says that it's a nostalgic track, so I'm guessing it isn't the new Celine Dion song from the Deadpool 2 soundtrack (that still sounds weird to say). I also like that Rob Liefeld makes it very clear that he is using a metaphor here and not giving away some plane-landing plot point in the film.

It sounds like director David Leitch nailed it, and given the lightning-in-a-bottle nature of the first film, that is no small task. You have to be stoked for Rob Liefeld because if he likes it, there's a good chance a large portion of the fanbase will as well. If the early reactions are anything to go by, his tears were well earned. Even though he is a proud papa, seeing his characters brought to life so brilliantly, Rob Liefeld was worried those tears might be misinterpreted, as he explained on Twitter.

He's absolutely right that if he had been seen crying after watching Deadpool 2 there would have been tons of people wondering what is wrong with the film that would have Deadpool's creator so distraught. Fortunately they were tears of joy for a dream come true. The hardest thing for any sequel is living up to the original, especially when it comes to comedies, and Deadpool is definitely part comedy. So if that hurdle was cleared we have a lot to be excited for.

Rob Liefeld, who was something of a controversial figure in the comic book community for a time, is enjoying incredible success and recognition for his creations at the moment. In addition to Deadpool 2 and a future X-Force movie, Rob Liefeld has signed a deal with Netflix to create a new comic book cinematic universe using his Extreme Universe characters. That is probably a ways away but in the meantime audiences are clearly getting ready for Wade Wilson and the X-Force as Deadpool 2 is set to have a huge debut when it opens in theaters on May 18th.

Rob Liefeld is best known as the creator of Deadpool. However, he's responsible for a host of comic book characters over the years, and now some of them are headed to Netflix. The streaming service/movie studio has reportedly signed a seven-figure deal for the rights to Liefeld's Extreme Universe characters, and will begin to develop a series of feature films that will include connective tissue between them. Netflix now has its own comic book cinematic universe.

Rob Liefeld's Extreme Universe covers more than 50 characters with names like Brigade, Bloodstrike, Cybrid, Re-Gex, Bloodwulf and Kaboom. According to Deadline, Akiva Goldsman will head a "high-end" writers room, similar to the one he's in charge of for the Transformers franchise, that will put together ideas for the forthcoming films. Liefeld apparently had another deal in the works with a different production company, but when it fell through, Netflix stepped up and put the deal together.

Netflix's move into the world of original programming is nothing new, but with movies like Bright and The Cloverfield Paradox, the company has been taking steps toward more broad appeal "blockbuster" style movies, and this is a big move in that direction. Clearly, Netflix has already had success in the comic book space with its series of Marvel television properties, but now they have their own comic book characters to play with. With Marvel and DC holding the vast majority of properties in that space, there isn't that much left for anybody else who wants to get in on the action, but picking up a massive number of characters and being able to put "From the creator of Deadpool" on your first teaser trailer, will go a long way to helping Netflix establish this new universe.

These characters certainly aren't household names, but Netflix has had little trouble making new movies and TV series successful, and the audience will almost certainly be willing to give more superheroes a chance. Especially characters that will have a few things in common with Deadpool. Liefeld uses the same sort of edge with the Extreme characters that he did when he created Deadpool, so fans of the merc with a mouth are likely to find something to enjoy with these characters as well.

It's far too early to have any idea when we might see any of these films but I'd expect Netflix is looking to hire writers for this new writers room right now. The studio reportedly greenlit the sequel to Bright before the first movie was actually released, so they clearly aren't being hesitant when it comes to moving forward with these larger budget films. And once the movies start to arrive, fans will be able to binge the entire cinematic universe, as every film will be right there on Netflix waiting to be watched.

It is always cool to see comic book creators hanging out with the people bringing their creations to life. One of the artists whose characters have hit the big screen in a big way is Rob Liefeld. The man behind Deadpool got to see his weird, lewd and fourth-wall breaking character fully realized in the 2016 film and now another one of his creations is making his cinematic debut. The time-traveling Nathan Summers, better known as Cable, is joining Wade Wilson in Deadpool 2. In advance of that film's debut, Rob Liefeld was hanging out with Cable actor Josh Brolin on the latter's birthday. Check it out.

Man, does Josh Brolin look badass as Cable or what? With Josh Brolin hitting the big 5-0, the actor is now the same age as Cable's creator and that is indeed 100 years of awesome with both men having been a part of creating some truly memorable characters and stories over the years. I like the hashtag teasing the Brolinaissance. I don't know if Josh Brolin needs a renaissance, a la how Matthew McConaughey did, but with the actor's slate this year, it's hard to argue. Josh Brolin gets to be Cable in Deadpool 2, Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and he is also returning for Sicario 2: Soldado. Brolinaissance indeed. Rob Liefeld even got to rock one of Cable's gloves for a time. Gloves, pouches, utility belts and gigantic guns are iconic, if occasionally made fun of, elements of Rob Liefeld's Cable design and it's cool to see Josh Brolin's on-screen portrayal maintaining that.

The casting of Cable was hugely important to fans who grew up loving the character, be it the version from the comics, his appearances in the X-Men animated series or as a great fighter in Marvel vs. Capcom. So it is so cool and reassuring to see Cable's creator being so enthused with his fellow 50-year-old's casting and portrayal as the character. And who can argue, Cable looked awesome in the Deadpool 2 trailer and Josh Brolin even looks all Cable in this Instagram post. Funnily someone even comments that Rob Liefeld looks like fellow X-Force member and frequent Cable compatriot, Shatterstar, in this photo. And while he's missing the glowing eye, I can see it. While I'm pretty sure Rob Liefeld wouldn't be playing him, it's looking like Shatterstar will show up in Deadpool 2.

You can expect to see a lot more fun social media marketing, hilarious advertisements and trolling between the actors ahead of Deadpool 2's release. Deadpool 2 flashdances its way into theaters on May 18th. For all of the biggest films hitting theaters this year, check out our release schedule and for all the latest on the Brolinaissance and all your movie news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.

This week was packed with trailers for many anticipated movies, Deadpool 2 being one of them. Although a couple seconds of footage from the sequel were sprinkled into the Bob Ross parody, this preview had a lot more moments to show off that were sandwiched in-between Wade Wilson using action figures to act out a fight between Cable and Sheriff Deadpool. Rob Liefeld, the man who co-created Deadpool and Cable (among others), was able to watch the Deadpool 2 trailer shortly before it was released to the masses, and in his opinion, 20th Century Fox made a wise move by not airing it alongside the other Super Bowl previews. Liefeld said:

It should be noted that Deadpool 2 didn't actually have all that trailer space to itself on Wednesday, as Netflix dropped a new preview for Jessica Jones Season 2. Sony also uploaded the Venom teaser trailer yesterday, leaving Marvel's symbiote-powered anti-hero as the one closing out the week (even though we didn't actually see Eddie Brock as Venom). Still, Rob Liefeld's comments to Heroic Hollywood make sense. Had Fox dropped the Deadpool 2 trailer alongside all those other Super Bowl previews, it undoubtedly would still have been appreciated, but folks would have their attention split between that, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and more. By waiting until Wednesday, the new look at Deadpool 2 carved out its own nice chunk of internet space, and the results have been most impressive, with the trailer being viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube alone.

Rather than partake in the Super Bowl commercial fun on Sunday, the Deadpool Twitter account instead live-tweeted the football game, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was Ryan Reynolds himself behind the keyboard. With only three months until Deadpool 2's arrival, you can be sure there will be an uptick in marketing and advertising for the sequel, which is introducing characters like Cable and Domino. And like Wade Wilson, it's likely that said marketing and advertising will continue breaking the fourth wall.

Deadpool 2 hits theaters on May 18, and don't forget to browse through our 2018 release schedule to find out what other blockbusters are coming out this year.

The big news today was the official announcement of the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox, but the future of Deadpool was a major conversation within that story. The foul-mouthed antihero has become phenomenally popular since the launch of his solo movie, but there was great concern that he would no longer be able to remain an R-rated character in the hands of Disney. Concerns were quickly put to rest by studio CEO Bob Iger, and it could be said that few were happier about this than Rob Liefeld:

Rob Liefeld, who co-introduced Deadpool to Marvel Comics along with Fabian Nicieza back in 1992, has been very outspoken about the character's place in pop culture, and during an interview with ComicBook.com he expressed happiness about the merger news and the Merc With The Mouth's place within in. A few weeks ago he was critical of the notion, fearing that the potential of Deadpool and the upcoming X-Force wouldn't be seen by Disney, but it seems his fears have been allayed by Bob Iger's comments.

Up until now, Marvel Studios has been a big extension of the Walt Disney Company's family friendly vibe, and Bob Iger went on the record after the successful release of Deadpool saying that the company had no immediate interest in making an R-rated blockbuster. The merger with 21st Century Fox clearly changes the conversation, however, now making the big question more about how these adult-oriented properties can be branded (Bob Iger may want to do some research into the Marvel Max imprint)

No matter what the future holds regarding possible R-rated superhero movies, nobody wants to see a PG-13 Deadpool feature following the success of his 2016 solo hit. Rob Liefeld said as much in his statement about the merger, saying,

Release schedules aren't expected to be impacted by the Disney-Fox merger, which means that fans can still expect to see the hotly anticipated and still-untitled Deadpool 2 in theaters on June 1, 2018. Exactly when we'll start to see him merge into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe is a question that doesn't currently have an answer.

You can check out the rest of the 2018 release calendar here.

It's no secret that comic book movies are dominating the box office nowadays. And with three shared universes currently vying for supremacy, we can expect a new superhero movie to arrive in theaters every few months for the foreseeable future. While critics fear that superhero fatigue will make the genre saturated and predictable, the Deadpool franchise has proven itself a game changer. The sequel will expand the universe by introducing mutants Domino and Cable into the narrative, the latter being played by Josh Brolin. And now Cable and Deadpool's creator Rob Liefeld has gotten the chance to meet the live-action Cable in the flesh, check out the photo.

Now this must have been an exciting moment for Rob Liefeld. Decades after creating the time traveling mutant for the X-Men comics, he was finally able to see a live-action version of the character in the flesh. Of course, it's unclear how Liefeld managed to have a conversation with Josh Brolin without staring at Cable's signature glowing eye. That would be distracting for me, at least.

While not directly involved in the Deadpool franchise, Rob Liefeld has been a vocal supporter of both blockbusters. And it does seem like Ryan Reynolds and the rest of the Deadpool crew value the prolific comic book writer's opinions on his characters. For instance, he recommended that the first film did not include Cable, as Deadpool's fourth breaking antics were already enough for casual audiences to wrap their minds around. But he's thrilled that Cable will be headed to the silver screen in Deadpool 2, and seems to think very highly of Josh Brolin's performance as the character.

It should be interesting to see exactly how Cable is introduced into the highly anticipated sequel, and how much of his convoluted backstory will be revealed. Cable has a pretty complicated backstory in the comics, as he's the child of Cyclops and Jean Grey's clone (yes, clone). He's eventually set back in time well into his adulthood, helping to stop his reality from happening. Considering where the main X-Men films' timeline currently is, Deadpool 2 is going to have to do a fair bit of "yadda yadda"-ing in order to quickly bring the character into the film's story. Luckily, Deadpool can break the fourth wall and give a mixture of exposition and self-deprecating jokes to address the awkwardness.

The X-Men franchise seems to be willing to take some serious risks, and therefore stand out amongst both the DCEU and MCU. Following Deadpool's success, James Mangold crafted an intimate and timeline defying R-rated final go for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in Logan. And while the main story will continue with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Josh Boone's The New Mutants will continue expanding the universe, while also being the superhero genre's first horror movie.

Deadpool 2 will arrive in theaters on June 1, 2018. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.

Rob Liefeld is a proud papa. His deranged offspring, Deadpool, recently went out into the big, bad landscape of silver-screen entertainment, and enjoyed unprecedented success for an R-rated action/comedy in a usually safe environment. So Liefeld, who created Deadpool in the pages of Marvel comic books, is puffing his chest a little and swinging at the Big Dog in town: Star Wars. Recognizing that Deadpool 2 will be opening around the same time as Solo: A Star Wars Story next summer, Liefeld dropped this gauntlet, challenging:

Fighting words? You could say. But Rob Liefeld -- who will be the first person to tell you that he has nothing to do with the Deadpool movies and simply cheers them on as a vocal fan -- has some weight to back up his argument. Released in February of 2016, the original Deadpool took the industry by storm, introducing a foul-mouthed mercenary (Ryan Reynolds) on a single-focus vengeance mission. Audiences flocked, and Deadpool banked $783 million worldwide for Fox.

The studio expects to up the game significantly for Deadpool 2, which will be directed by John Wick co-creator David Leitch. For starters, they will be rolling in fan-favorite characters like Cable (Josh Brolin) and Domino (Zazie Beetz), while also bringing back Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and Weasel (T.J. Miller). And then there is that confident shift to the Summer Blockbuster schedule, where superhero movies like Wonder Woman, X-Men: Apocalypse and the Marvel movies tend to shine.

All of that being said, this is Star Wars that Deadpool 2 is going up against, so it's the farthest thing from a slam dunk that David Leitch's sequel is going to kick Han Solo's ass, as Rob Liefeld predicts before a panel at L.A. Comic Con (via ComicBook). In fact, some have wondered why Solo: A Star Wars Story isn't taking the December slot that the Star Wars universe has enjoyed so far with The Force Awakens, Rogue One and this year's Star Wars: The Last Jedi. When Solo experienced its behind-the-scenes turmoil, many expected it would shift back to buy replacement director Ron Howard some time to catch up on what needed to be done. For the time being, the Solo v. Deadpool 2 battle remains on track.

There's usually enough room in the Summer season for numerous blockbusters. Releases are so frontloaded that massive movies make what they can on opening weekend, then shift focus to international rollouts. It's not often that a major movie gets two full weekends free of competition. But we admire Rob Liefeld's moxie in going after Han Solo, and understand where his confidence lies. Now, check out our 2018 Release Date Schedule to see what else is opening in theaters next year. What other movies going head to head can start talking smack in the press?

Everything's coming up Deadpool, as the character continues his cultural zenith. After the incredibly successful Deadpool movie, the sequel is on the way for next year, and it will introduce some key figures to the series: Cable and Domino. Rob Liefeld, the creator of both Deadpool and Domino, could not be more excited to see the two of them on screen together. Being the creator of Deadpool and all, he has some storing opinions on how to do their dynamic in live-action, but he believes that the most important thing is that they A+ chemistry.

Rob Liefeld is enjoying Deadpool's rise in popularity in recent years, and spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the character and all of the many Deadpool-related projects in the works. When asked how he felt about Cable and Domino, two of the best known Deadpool supporting characters, making their debut in Deadpool 2, Liefeld was very excited for what is in store (he's especially a fan of that Josh Brolin casting). Liefeld praised the casting of Zazie Beetz as the mutant mercenary Domino and said that the key to success will be nailing the chemistry which, judging by his words, Ryan Reynold's and Beetz have a lot of.

It's kind of a "no duh" statement to say that co-stars need to have good chemistry, but Rob Liefeld isn't wrong. Half of liking Domino is liking her when she's with Deadpool. The better the two of them are together, the better the movie will be.

In the comics, Deadpool and Domino have a complicated relationship. Originally, the two shared an antagonistic relationship, with Deadpool having worked for someone who once kidnapped Domino. Since then the two have dated on and off, with Domino tolerating Deadpool about as much as anyone can. They typically share a nice back and forth with each other, so it'll be interesting to see how Deadpool 2 utilizes it.

Very little is known about Deadpool 2 at the moment. David Leitch is sitting in the director's chair this time around, working off a script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, with additional material provided by Drew Goddard. Ryan Reynolds returns as Deadpool and the sequel will at least partly deal with the trend of Hollywood making sequels. Morena Baccarin, Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, and Brianna Hildebrand fill out the cast.

There's a whole lot to look forward to when Deadpool 2 hits theaters on June 1, 2018. To learn more about the sequel, make sure to check out everything we know.

While the fear of superhero fatigue is at the forefront of critics' minds, certain installments in the genre have proven to be game changers for comic book adaptations. Chief among them is Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, which destroyed expectations in regards to rating and format. Deadpool was cinderella story of 2016, making expectations for the sequel sky high. And while Deadpool 2 has had a rocky road toward development, it did manage to land Josh Brolin as the futuristic mutant Cable. Now Deadpool's creator Rob Liefeld has spoken up about the process that went into casting Cable, and why he was originally worried about it.

Rob Liefeld recently spoke with THR about the future of Deadpool in the comics, as well as the big screen franchise. Regarding the months of speculation regarding Cable's casting in Deadpool 2, Liefeld said the following:

This sounds like a pretty reasonable concern. After the wild success of Deadpool, Rob Liefeld feared that the wrong actor would be chosen to play Cable, which will therefore affect the film as a whole. Luckily for Liefeld and the fans, the always impressive Josh Brolin eventually signed on to play Deadpool's futuristic straight man.

While Josh Brolin seems like a fantastic choice to play Nathan Summers/ Cable in Deadpool 2, he wasn't the only name thrown around since Cable's inclusion was announced in Deadpool's post credits scene. Early rumors pointed at Friday Night Lights actor Kyle Chandler for the role, while actors like Stephen Lang also campaigned for the role.

And while all three of those gentlemen would have made fine enough Cables, there was also the off chance that the studio would pick a bogus choice, just based on starpower. We've seen this happen with various iconic roles throughout the year, so Rob Liefeld and the audiences were able to relax once Josh Brolin signed on.

In fact, Rob Liefeld actually praised Josh Brolin's casting, saying:

With Josh Brolin leaving his mark on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Infinity War, it looks like we'll be seeing the actor kick ass and take names for the next few years. But with the tone of Deadpool so unique to superhero films, we likely won't be able to even recognize the same actor in both roles. Plus, he's purple as Thanos.

Be sure to check back with us here at CinemaBlend for updated about Deadpool 2, and check out our full 2017 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

It's always interesting to know exactly why actors are cast in roles, especially when the film itself is so far away from release. And the bigger the film, the bigger the intrigue. So the recent announcement that Zazie Beats will star as Domino opposite Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2 made people wonder what she'd showcased in order to land the coveted part, especially since the casting process had been going on for so long. It turns out that Zazie Beats' most impressive attribute was being able to keep up with Ryan Reynolds, something that plenty of other actresses had failed to do. That's according to Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, who explained,

Anyone who has seen Zazie Beats in Atlanta knows that there's an effortless presence and allure to her that will lend itself perfectly to both the comic book genre, and a film of this magnitude. In fact, she has the exact sort of nonchalant charisma that Deadpool 2 requires, especially in the wake of the huge success of its predecessor. Deadpool went on to become the most successful R-rated film in cinema history, thanks to its box office haul of $783.1 million. The revelation from Rob Leifeld to ComicBook.com that Zazie Beats doesn't just go toe-to-toe with Ryan Reynolds, but might actually exceed him, only adds even more credence to her casting.

But while Zazie Beats is now all set to take on the part of Domino in Deadpool 2, we're still patiently waiting for news on who will play Cable. The latest speculation from earlier this week is that Michael Shannon is now the front-runner, and he would certainly fit the bill. But considering just how much has unfolded because of Cable's casting in Deadpool 2 (with Tim Miller allegedly dropping out because of his differences with Ryan Reynolds over who should play the part), it's best to wait until Shannon is literally in costume before we get too excited about his participation.

Since 2015, Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has become a big name in the world of cinematic universe franchises. In collaboration with Paramount Pictures, he not only created a braintrust that would help formulate the future of the Transformers series, but also went on to do the same thing with Hasbro and brands like G.I. Joe and ROM: Space Knight. We haven't seen an actual product from this process just yet, as none of the developing projects have made it to release -- but the methodology is continuing to spread, as the same approach that's going into the construction of the recently-announced Extreme Cinematic Universe.

Late last week, I had the pleasure of hopping on the phone with artist/writer Rob Liefeld -- the creator of the Extreme Studios comics that serves as inspiration for the burgeoning franchise -- and he told me all about the movie deal's origins. It all began in early 2016, when he got a call from Akiva Goldsman, asking if he'd be game to take a meeting. This was a deal from which Liefeld really had no expectations, but it kicked off with an incredibly exclusive peek at everything that is currently in the works for the Transformers movies. He told me,

For those who are a bit fuzzy on the history here, in the summer of 2015 Paramount Pictures had Akiva Goldsman bring together a group of writers -- including Robert Kirkman, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Zak Penn, Jeff Pinkner, and more -- come together to research the history of the Transformers series and construct a plan for how the movies can branch out into a multi-tiered franchise with strict continuity and overlapping narratives. According to Rob Liefeld, this resulted in a massive tome of scripts and artwork -- one that he considered sneaking out of the room and keeping for himself because of its majesty. This book was impressive enough to make him seriously consider such a future for the Extreme Universe he created for Image Comics.

It was at this point that Akiva Goldsman noted that he wasn't alone in his interest in Rob Liefeld's work, and that he both had a producer on board, and financing. Really, it was all coming together as a package. Said Liefeld,

It was after meeting with both Akiva Goldsman and Graham King that Rob Liefeld had a moment of clarity about the opportunity presented to him. He would not only be working with people he respected, but they had prepared absolutely everything in advance that would allow the franchise to start being built in an exciting way. It was an offer he couldn't refuse:

Hopefully in the coming weeks we'll be hearing announcements regarding who will be populating the Extreme Cinematic Universe writer's room... and you can always be sure to find the biggest news here on Cinema Blend!

Cinematic universes are all the rage these days, and it's a trend primarily driven by the popularity of comic books and superhero stories. Marvel Studios launched it all with Iron Man back in 2008, but now we've seen the model matched on the big screen by competitors at DC Comics and 20th Century Fox. Right now those are the top three in the game, but audiences will soon be introduced to a whole new franchise from a very different brand of comics, specifically the Extreme Cinematic Universe.

It was recently announced that Rob Liefeld's Image Comics-based imprint, Extreme Studios, has earned attention from Oscar-winning writer Akiva Goldsman and producer Graham King, and there are now plans in the works to bring that fictional world to the big screen for the first time. During the early 1990s, Extreme launched multiple successful titles, and the belief is that they can be adapted and made part of a cohesive universe brought to life in blockbuster format. It's source material with plenty of potential, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with some of the big titles and names involved, we've put together this handy guide to help you get a grip on what it's all going to be about and what to expect.

What Is Extreme Studios?

In 1992, a group of very notable comic book artists - including Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio, Erik Larsen, and Rob Liefeld - made a big move. Rather than inventing characters for companies that would ultimately own the rights to everything created, they decided to found Image Comics: a publishing house dedicated to releasing creator-owned titles and material. Under this banner, the artists individually established their own special studios, with Extreme Studios being the company launched by Rob Liefeld (best known as the co-creator of Deadpool, Cable, and many other notable Marvel heroes and villains).

The first ever title to be released by Image Comics was Extreme's Youngblood - a superhero team comic that wound up being incredibly successful and the first independent release to be a number one best-seller. In 2009, Reliance Entertainment acquired the rights to this particular series, which explains why it wasn't mentioned in the initial announcement about the Extreme Cinematic Universe. That being said, there are still multiple titles from the same world that still remain open for adaptation - as you'll discover as you continue reading!

Badrock

Part of the Youngblood team, Badrock was one of the earliest characters created by the young publishing company, and has an origin story that should very easily translate to the big screen. Before his transformation, Thomas John McCall was a slacker 16-year-old, living a normal life with his scientist father, Dr. Joseph McCall, and mother, Angela. As they do in comics, everything changes when Thomas ingests some genetic material in his dad's lab - and he winds up undergoing a pretty radical transformation. As pictured above, he remained humanoid, but turned gigantic and his skin is like rock.

Badrock wound up having a busy existence outside of the Youngblood series, getting not only his own series, but also a separate team-up series called Badrock And Company. Given how cinematic universes operate, there is a clear opportunity that exists in this from a franchise-building standpoint - especially given that a Badrock movie wouldn't be a bad place for everything to start from.

Bloodstrike

Just given the source material, the Extreme Cinematic Universe is set up to have a mix of projects that are solo hero movies as well as others that are more team oriented. Given the publication history, Bloodstrike is a title that somewhat straddles that line - as the eponymous series started out as a comic following a team, and then evolved into being pretty much all about one character... who was called Bloodstrike. Depending on how Akiva Goldsman, Rob Liefeld, and their team of writers want to play it within the franchise, there are multiple ways presented to tackle this potential big screen series.

When Bloodstrike was launched in 1993, it centered on a group of elite government agents who all had one very important thing in common: they had all died in action. A team of five - Cabbot Stone, Tag, Fourplay, Shogun, and Deadlock - they were all resurrected by military scientists who utilized them for dangerous/wet work missions, kept on a leash due to their dead-ness and need for certain chemicals to remain functional. As mentioned earlier, the "Bloodstrike" title eventually focused one specifically one character, Cabbot Stone, who wasn't actually revealed as the masked hero Bloodstrike until after the original series had ended. One significant part of his biography is that he is the brother of Battlestone, a member of the team known as...

Brigade

When I got to speak with Rob Liefeld about the birth of the Extreme Cinematic Universe, he told me one element that he was legitimately excited for cinema to portray was the relationship between the aforementioned Bloodstrike and Battlestone... given that they don't exactly have the easiest relationship. In his own words:

This resurrection story, involving the same Project: Born Again that resurrected Bloodstrike, is easily an arc that can be established as a tentpole event as the braintrust builds out the plans for the Extreme Cinematic Universe's future.

Battlestone is obviously a significant figure in Brigade, given that he is the team leader, but we obviously can't ignore the heroes with whom he battles evil. Another spin-off of the popular Youngblood comics (Battlestone was an original team member), Brigade's protagonists included Kayo (a Japanese assassin), Boone (an infiltration expert) and Lethal (a mysterious masked killer who is quite handy with a sword).

Supreme

Supreme is another title that could easily be adapted as part of the Extreme Cinematic Universe, given his Superman-level powers and history... but the big question would be in regard to which version of the character we would see on the big screen. Supreme was originally created by Rob Liefeld in 1992 as the reincarnated identity of Ethan Crane - a man subjected to experiments in prison following getting vengeance for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. He was established as an arrogant god-level character and the most powerful being in the established universe (not only gifted with super strength, speed and flight, but also able to adapt to any threat posed to him).

This all changed, however, when writer Alan Moore came on to the book and completely rewrote everything about him. Far less dark than his other titles like Watchmen, and Batman: The Killing Joke, Moore's version was more of a callback to bright Silver Age comics, and introduced Ethan Crane as a comic book artist who can transform into Supreme thanks to a childhood run-in with a reality-altering element known as Supremium.

Should we get a Supreme solo film, it's unclear which origin we would see play out - though perhaps the writers could find a way to meld the visions of Rob Liefeld and Alan Moore and create a special cinematic take on the hero.

Glory

If you're getting some Wonder Woman vibes off of the image of Glory you see above, it's with pretty good reason. Like the most popular heroine of DC Comics, Rob Liefeld's creation for Extreme Studios is also an Amazonian with a history tied in with fantastical mythology. She is the daughter of Lady Demeter, the Queen of the Amazonians, as well as Lord Silverfall, a demon from the underworld - and while she was raised in Amazonia, she also possesses an innate savagery from her father's side. This embedded deep feelings in her that she didn't belong in either of her parents' worlds, and eventually ventured into the world of man to fight along allied forces in World War II.

Like Supreme, Glory was another character who changed when Alan Moore started writing stories - but the alterations were far less extreme (she goes the Clark Kent route and takes on the identity of Gloria West to properly experience humanity). Given that we are about to see a big screen incarnation of Wonder Woman, the cinematic version of Glory may have to change again just as a way of appearing to be something new and different - but there's obvious potential to have her as a leading female hero in the Extreme Cinematic Universe.

Bloodpool

In case you couldn't tell, there's a good amount of callback and connection to the Youngblood series that served as the foundation for Extreme Studio comics, and this is yet another one of them. Making the name quite appropriate, Bloodpool is essentially exists as a recruitment pool for the Youngblood roster, and is made up of young heroes who train and work to establish themselves until being called up to the big leagues. The titular comic series didn't start running until 1996, but was yet another creation of Rob Liefeld.

Like any good superhero team, the ensemble includes members who all have very different abilities that can prove useful. This includes a regenerating super-soldier (Task); a hero who can transmute and manipulate matter (Fusion); a telepath (Psilence); a genetically altered half-human/half-animal with blades in his arms (Wylder); a man of living stone (Rubble); and a woman who can conjure the spirits of dead warriors to give her enhanced strength in time of battle (Seoul).

Prophet

Another character introduced in the 1992 Youngblood series (Issue #2), Prophet was originally imagined by Rob Liefeld as a character who could potentially fit into his work on Marvel Comic's X-Force, but wound up saving him for his own creator-owned material. This was how he finally wound up on the page in the Extreme Universe - getting his own series in the early 1990s and brought back in a revitalization in 2011.

Prophet's origin story begins with the tale of John Prophet - a homeless man during World War II who is convinced by a time-traveling scientist named Dr. Wells to be the subject of medical experiments. Thanks to enhancements to his DNA, Prophet becomes superhuman... but it's initially for a sinister purpose. He was meant to be created to serve an evil ruler named Phillip Omen, but Dr. Wells changes the programming and makes him have a strong belief in god and a hunger to fight Omen's disciples. He was then put into stasis, and after being found and awoken in the modern era by the Youngblood team, he goes on a journey of self-discovery.

Last month, one of the most surprising and exciting nominations announced for the Golden Globes was Ryan Reynolds getting a nod for Best Actor -- Musical/Comedy. After all, 2016 was filled to the brim with amazing performances from leading men, and it's rare that superhero movies like Deadpool get recognized in this season. That being said, Reynolds is very much in competition in the category, and the creator of the character he plays, Rob Liefeld, even fully believes that the Canadian actor will be going on stage to collect an award on Sunday night.

Between the Golden Globes, the Writers Guild Association nomination for Deadpool, and the news of the developing Extreme Cinematic Universe, Liefeld is having a pretty fantastic 2017 so far, and I had the chance to talk about all of it with the famed comic book artist/creator earlier this week. With the Globes being held this Sunday, it was the first topic of conversation that we hit upon, and Liefeld was in no shortage of enthusiasm for Ryan Reynolds and his chances during the awards show. As he put it:

In explaining his thinking, Rob Liefeld admitted that his feelings come out of being a homer and wanting to see everything Deadpool-related succeed... but he also has incredible admiration for what Ryan Reynolds did with the part. After all, while the film is hilarious pretty much from beginning to end, it also does a fair bit of genre mixing and has its moments of high emotion. Liefeld believes all of this is played to perfection by the star, and should be rewarded at the Golden Globes:

In the Best Actor -- Musical/Comedy category at the Golden Globes, Ryan Reynolds certainly does some powerful opponents, including Ryan Gosling (La La Land), Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins), Colin Farrell (The Lobster) and Jonah Hill (War Dogs). The unpredictability of the Hollywood Foreign Press voting means that it's anybody's game, but it would be pretty great to see Reynolds head home with the prize.

Do you think Ryan Reynolds is going to win a Golden Globe this Sunday? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts -- and be sure to stay tuned for not only all of our awards section, but also a lot more from my interview with Rob Liefeld!

Slade Wilson and Wade Wilson. Just hearing the respective names of Deathstroke and Deadpool can become confusing over time. Fans have argued over whether or not Marvel's Deadpool is a rip-off of DC's Deathstroke for years, and Deadpool's creator Rob Liefeld has apparently had enough. He recently took to the web to highlight the fundamental differences between these two comic book mercenaries, and the results were nothing if not hilarious. Check out the video below to see more.

Rob Liefeld must have consumed an entire pot of coffee before recording this video for Nerdy Pop, because he came out of the gates sprinting. Over the course of a few short minutes, the creator of Deadpool calls out "DC Bros," and gives a very thorough and in-depth explanation for how Deadpool isn't so similar to Deathstroke. Citing everything from the color differences in their outfits, to the differences in the looks under their respective masks, Liefeld deconstructs Slade and Wade to make his case for how they're simply not the same character. In fact, he even makes a point that Deathstroke's outfit shares more similarities with Captain America than Deadpool, with its incorporation of chain mail. He mostly plays the video for laughs, and in that regard he definitely succeeds.

The differences between these characters will have to become even more pronounced in the very near future, because they will both be on the center stage in major cinematic universes. Die hard comic book fans know the differences between these two, but mainstream audiences presumably aren't quite as astute. Ryan Reynolds finally got the opportunity to take on the role of Deadpool in a solo film earlier this year, and left an insane mark on the character. An unknown actor (rumored to be Joe Manganiello) will do the same for Slade Wilson when Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie finally hits theaters. With both Wade Wilson and Slade Wilson taking up space on the silver screen, it will be up to filmmakers to do their best in showcasing the differences between them -- which isn't always the easiest thing to do.

We know that this video is going to send some of you into a furious rage in which you try to explain how Deadpool is in fact a rip-off of Deathstroke. First, we need you to calm down. Second, we need you to understand that it ultimately doesn't even matter. Much like the comparisons between Darkseid and Thanos, the similarities between Deadpool and Deathstroke are non-issues because they've become fundamentally different characters over time. Deathstroke has a far darker, and more straight-laced personality, while Deadpool defines himself by his consistent fourth wall breaks and use of vulgar humor. Even if Rob Liefeld took inspiration from Slade Wilson to create Wade Wilson, Deadpool has still evolved over the years to become his own unique entity.

Of course, this debate will probably never come to an end. Fans have already formed their own opinions about each of these characters, and it's hard to shake a fan's beliefs once they have solidified. We will just have to wait and see how Deadpool and Deathstroke evolve on the silver screen over the next few years.

While there are many creatives who have gotten completely burned by the Hollywood system, comic book artist Rob Liefeld isn’t one of those people. Sure, the creator of the Marvel comics character Deadpool surely wasn’t happy with the character’s representation in 2010’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the industry has repaid the debt from that disaster by creating the amazing Deadpool movie that came out earlier this year. In fact, Rob Liefeld loves director Tim Miller’s film so much that he puts it on a very special pedestal alongside both Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie and Jon Favreau’s Iron Man - in that he thinks that all three features enhance their titular hero in a way beyond what any of the comics were able to do before them.

This is obviously a pretty bold statement, but when I had the chance to talk with Rob Liefeld over the phone earlier this month, he made his argument very clear as to why he thinks both Superman: The Movie and Iron Man both managed to surpass their source material:

Superman: The Movie

In discussing his amazement at Richard Donner’s classic Supeman: The Movie, and how it managed to actually find ways to surpass the comics, Rob Liefeld started by acknowledging the incredible representation of the titular character’s home planet: Krypton. In his design of the alien world, Donner and his crew created incredible crystalline sets and a 1920s pulp vibe never before represented in DC publications, and it totally blew Liefeld’s mind when he first watched it:

It wasn’t just Superman’s father who impressed young Rob Liefeld – who told me about his experience as a 10-year-old seeing Superman: The Movie for the first time. He also completely fell in love with the big screen version of Lex Luthor – who was portrayed by Gene Hackman in a way that ran completely contrary to the bald-headed, non-literal-mustache-twirler who had been in comics for four decades to that point. Said Liefeld,

This was the first time that Rob Liefeld felt a big screen superhero managed to outpace his comic book counterpart, but it wasn’t the last time…

Iron Man

In 2008, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man arrived to completely change the world of modern comic book movies, establishing the Marvel Cinematic Universe and launching one of the most successful big screen franchises in Hollywood history. The film can be described as being revolutionary in many ways, and Rob Liefeld believes that one of those ways is by being "far superior" to the source material on which the project was based.

A big thing that Rob Liefeld loved about Tim Miller’s Deadpool movie is the fact that it is completely loyal to the comics while also managing to successfully be its own thing – presenting the titular character in situations not taken directly from the page while still capturing the spirit of the anti-hero in those new conditions. It was exactly this that the artist also loved about Jon Favreau’s Iron Man as well. Said Liefeld,

It’s true that Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s "Extremis" storyline in Iron Man comics was the first to move the character’s origin story to Afghanistan, but there’s no denying that the big screen adaptation of the character completely changed the world’s perception of Tony Stark – and Robert Downey Jr.’s performances continue to do that to this day.

What do you all think? Do you agree with Rob Liefeld that Deadpool, Superman: The Movie, and Iron Man manage to outpace the comic book material that came before them – or would you make an argument against one of those choices? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts!

The comic book histories of Deadpool and Cable are very much interwoven. After all, they not only shared a title that lasted for 50 issues and have appeared in multiple miniseries together since, but the Merc With The Mouth even debuted in New Mutants #98 with the mission of assassinating the bionic arm-sporting time-traveler. That being said, introducing them together in the first Deadpool movie probably would have been a major mistake – and this is a sentiment that’s shared by Rob Liefeld, the creator of both characters, who highly recommended against it in the early stages of the film.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with the Deadpool and Cable creator on the phone, catching up on everything that’s been happening with the characters in the last few months, and one interesting thing he mentioned was that he was very much against the idea of both of the characters sharing the spotlight in what would wind up being director Tim Miller’s film. Said Liefeld,

Rob Liefeld was very adamant about the fact that he couldn’t speak on any level about Cable having a role in the developing Deadpool 2 (despite what was said in Deadpool’s post-credits scene), but did express confidence in the approach that he calls the "Marvel Strategy": using the sequel to start introducing bigger characters closely related to the hero. Said Liefeld,

As a big fan of both Deadpool the character and Deadpool the movie, it’s tremendously hard to argue with Rob Liefeld here. Part of what made the film work so well is the fact that it kept things tight and focused on the main players, and throwing a character as complex as Cable would have been distracting and thrown the entire thing off-kilter. Now that audiences know what Deadpool is all about, the sequel can throw Cable into the mix and really have some fun.

Deadpool 2 is still in the early stages of development and doesn’t have a release date, so you’ll have to stay tuned for more information on that front. That being said, Deadpool arrived on Blu-ray and DVD earlier this month, so now you can watch it as many times as you want.

Now that Wade Wilson has proven himself an absolutely capable box office draw, all eyes are on Deadpool 2 to repeat the success of its predecessor. In one near-perfect movie, he proved that an R-rated avenue to FOX’s X-Men universe could totally work wonders with audiences. The upcoming Deadpool sequel will bring iconic X-Man Cable into the equation, but many fans had hoped to see him sooner. As it turns out, Cable was almost featured prominently in the recent Deadpool solo movie.

Speaking with Inverse, Deadpool’s creator Rob Liefeld spoke out about how Cable’s presence in the recent superhero blockbuster was strongly considered, but ultimately dropped:

Although it didn’t initially sit well with Rob Liefeld, he opted to side with FOX on the matter, and leave the time-travelling mutant on the back burner so a future movie could have him. In the end it seems like the folks behind Deadpool made the right decision. Wade Wilson is a niche enough character that he really needs an entire movie for audiences to properly become acquainted with his personality and abilities. Cable is an incredibly complex character, full of a ton of high-concept sci-fi tropes; those would have ultimately weighed down the relatively straightforward narrative of Deadpool. However, Deadpool covered its bases by promising that Cable would show up in a sequel during the film’s credits. It’s a glorious homage to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

By focusing on Ryan Reynolds and his character Wade Wilson, Deadpool proved successful enough with audiences that a sequel was a no brainer for FOX. Now they have an entire movie to introduce Cable and have him team up with an anti-hero that has already definitively won audiences over in a big way. Now it’s just a matter of casting; numerous actors’ names have been thrown around the rumor mill for the highly coveted part, ranging from Jon Hamm, to Avatar’s Stephen Lang, to even actress Kiera Knightly – she’s got range, after all.

Do you think Cable should have been present in Deadpool? Sound off in the comments below.

We will keep you up to date regarding any and all information related to Deadpool 2 – as well as Cable’s involvement in the film – as it becomes available to us.