Marvel fans have Blake Lively to thank for Deadpool & Wolverine‘s killer ending.
Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy revealed on the Deadpool & Wolverine director’s commentary that Lively’s reaction to the movie caused them to reshoot certain scenes.
“We did just a day-and-a-half of reshoots on the movie, which we’re very proud of,” Reynolds, 48, shared, according to Variety. “These kinds of movies typically involve weeks of reshoots. But this speech that Matthew [Macfadyen] has is one of the pieces that we reshot. And he is miraculous.”
The original ending showed Deadpool (Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) saving the world by destroying the Time Ripper. Deadpool and Wolverine’s survival was immediately revealed, which isn’t what fans saw once Deadpool & Wolverine was released in July.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ Quotes About Working on Each Other’s Movies
The new scenes showed Deadpool and Wolverine ready to sacrifice themselves and die in order to destroy the Time Ripper. Their fates were left unknown, leaving fans on the edge of their seats as the villainous Paradox (Macfadyen) delivered a speech — until he was interrupted by the main characters.
“And credit where credit is due. It used to be that there was no suspense, that the power room blew up, and our heroes had survived,” Levy, 56, shared of the switch. “And it was Blake Lively who said to us, ‘You know, I’ve been with you this whole movie. I want to sit in the fear that they’re lost. Let me be in that place of suspense so the triumph of their survival is more emotional and visceral.’”
Levy praised Lively’s response, adding, “That was a Blake note and it really opened up a new way of thinking about this part of the movie and it’s why we did this reshoot. And, here, the payoff is so much more satisfying.”
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Reynolds previously reflected on how Lively, 37, influenced Deadpool & Wolverine. The actress, who played Lady Deadpool in the third movie, sent a ping-pong table to the movie set that allowed Reynolds, Levy and Jackman, 56, to tap into the movie’s comedic tone while playing competitive games together.
“She and I have a bunch of these prints of actors playing it on their sets,” Reynolds said in an interview with Vanity Fair in June. “We’ve got [Paul] Newman and [Robert] Redford in Durango, Mexico, during the shooting of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We’ve got Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, I think in the ’30s. We have Olivia de Havilland playing ping-pong, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman playing. Joan Crawford. So Blake sent the ping-pong table to Pinewood Studios.”
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The third Deadpool picked up six years after Deadpool 2 as Wade attempted to live a normal life but was pulled into a new mission that forced him to team up with Wolverine. Deadpool & Wolverine reunited Reynolds and Jackman in their Marvel roles for the first time since 2009.
Following the success of Deadpool & Wolverine, Reynolds announced his plans to write a new movie reuniting him with Jackman and Levy.
“I’m spending the year writing,” Reynolds told Variety earlier this month. “I’m writing a movie for myself, Hugh and Shawn to do that is not Marvel.”
