Deadpool Creator Pessimistic About the Odds of a Deadpool 3 at Disney

When Disney bought 20th Century Fox, one of the biggest concerns people had was over what was going to happen to the slew of fantastic R-rated content that Fox had been putting out, which didn’t fit with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) PG-13 image. Deadpool was at the center of this worry, and according to Rob Liefeld, the character’s co-creator, it was a valid concern.

When asked by Inverse about the chances of a Deadpool 3 happening, the writer said, “I don’t know. Here’s what people don’t want to hear, but thank God I’m a realist. I feel like Deadpool, the movies, they’ve set sail. We got two brilliant movies, and we live in a culture that always looks forward because all they’re ever selling us is ‘next, next, next.’ It’s the fever.”

Liefeld went on to say that he just isn’t that excited about the MCU’s next phase, which features Black Widow, Dr. Strange, the Eternals, and Shang-Chi. Not to mention the fact that there won’t be any X-Men or mutants in the MCU for a very long time, meaning it’s going to be a big wait until Deadpool 3 would even hit screens. Liefeld notes that if they started working on a third movie now that it wouldn’t come out for four years.

“Know what their plan for Deadpool is right now? Goose egg. Zero. Zero,” Liefeld said.

This is all in stark contrast to what everyone else who actually worked on the films is saying. Ryan Reynolds has teased on multiple occasions that he’s been talking to Marvel and Disney, and the franchise’s screenwriters have said they’re working on things alongside him. Even Disney/Marvel themselves have come out and said that an R-rated Deadpool is a go at some point. Though Liefeld designed Deadpool, his involvement with the films isn’t that great, not even warranting any executive producer credits for the films.

Much of what he’s saying here sounds like frustration to the film moving slowly more than any actual information on Disney rejecting it. The first two Deadpool films made $1,571,706,150 worldwide, and the first film was the top-grossing R-rated movie ever until the second movie came out and beat that. It seems unlikely that Disney is going to leave that kind of money on the table for long, even if Liefeld isn’t excited about when they will get around to doing it.