Deadpool 2 seemed like the kind of film that should have been an easy slam dunk. Sure, the creative process is always brutal and unforgiving, but coming off the first Deadpool, you would’ve imagined that director Tim Miller and actor/producer Ryan Reynolds would’ve still been spraying each other with champagne given how much of a success it was. This was a movie that was made on a shoestring budget of less than $60 million, and managed to make almost 13 times the amount. 

Apparently, it wasn’t meant to be. Behind the scenes in Deadpool, things weren’t as Kumbaya as well all thought, and after jumping into Deadpool 2, it seemed like some of the creative issues Miller and Reynolds had with one another bubbled back up to the surface. With that, Miller departed the project, and in his place came John Wick co-director David Leitch.

Speaking with EW, Reynolds opened up about why he and the rest of the crew went to Leitch for the superhero sequel:

“Everybody was just a fan of his [Leitch’s] work. He’s just a guy who’s so muscular with his action. He also really understands those Deadpool sensibilities and where we need to take the franchise from here. And I love John Wick. One of the things that David Leitch does that very few filmmakers can do these days is they can make a movie on an ultra tight minimal budget look like it was shot for 10-15 times what it cost.”

Few can really argue with the logic here. John Wick was a real tour de force of action directing — and on an even smaller budget of $20 million. This was a director who knew how to work under restrictions, and how to make his job impactful.

One of the rumored reasons for Miller’s departure from the franchise came with claims that he wanted to make a more “stylized” sequel, implying that Reynolds wanted to capitalize on the raunchy humor they paraded around in the first film. However, producer Simon Kinberg had his own thoughts when speaking to the outlet — not necessarily about Miller’s departure, but about their goals with this next film. If his word is to be trusted, they are looking to be just as ambitious with this sequel than we’re being led to believe.

“The goal for us when we sat down and started talking about it was it needs to be as provocative and startling as the first film which means it can’t just be a continuation of the first film. It has tonally and stylistically be as fresh and original. That’s a big challenge especially because they had 10 years to gestate on the first movie and we don’t have that kind of time on the second movie. That’s the biggest mandate going into on the second film: to not make it bigger. We have to resist the temptation to make it bigger in scale and scope, which is normally what you do when you have a surprise hit movie. But actually stay true to the tenets of it’s the tone and the style and the humor that make it so special — it’s not the explosions and the special effects.” 

So while it looks like they’re looking to capitalize on the humor they established, it would seem unfair to say they’re trying to make “more of the same.”

What do you think of Reynolds’ and Kinberg’s comments? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: EW