And to think, all it took to get a Deadpool movie was forcing 20th Century Fox’s hand…
Nearly two months after test footage of a Deadpool movie leaked onto the internet, impressing and exciting the fans, the studio has set a release date for the feature film. Deadpool will hit theaters on February 12, 2016. According to Entertainment Weekly, Tim Miller, who has been attached to the project since 2011, will direct the movie, and Ryan Reynolds is expected to reprise his role from the 2009 movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film which may no longer be in continuity with the X-Men franchise after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Related: The 20 Biggest Mistakes in the X-Men Movies
Deadpool, a.k.a. “The Merc with a Mouth,” is an anti-hero from the Marvel Universe with superhuman healing abilities. An ultraviolent murderer who sometimes does good, but usually does whatever he thinks is funny, Deadpool reached newfound heights of popularity amongst comic book fans after he joined the ranks of characters who became self-aware. In other words, Deadpool knows he’s in a comic book, which makes everyone else think he’s insane. (Other self-aware comic book characters have included Animal Man, Psycho-Pirate and Ambush Bug, all of them from the DC Universe.)
The news that a Deadpool movie is finally, officially on the way will make today a happy one for fans of the character. Fans of the video game Assassin’s Creed or the comic book Fantastic Four might have some mixed feelings. 20th Century Fox also shifted the release dates of those two movies. Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four has moved from June 2015 to August 2015 – probably a response to the unexpected box office success of Guardians of the Galaxy last month – and Assassin’s Creed, which was scheduled to star recent Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender, has been pushed off the schedule altogether. The film had been scheduled for August 7, 2015 but apparently wasn’t going to be ready in time.
CraveOnline will keep an eye out for more Deadpool movie news. After all, we still don’t know what the heck it’s about or who else will be in it.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
