Let’s Talk ‘X-FORCE’ And A ‘DEADPOOL’ Budget Casualty

DEADPOOL is coming on Friday (you should see it!), and it represents a few interesting things for 20th Century Fox. For starters, it’s a risky proposition in that it’s a profane, violent R-rated caper set in the same universe as their cash cow X-MEN movies. It’s also another attempt by Fox to expand its X-MEN series as it hopes to launch a cinematic universe on par with what Marvel Studios has created.

Something Fox did to counteract the risk they’re taking- one that they were so adamant about avoiding that they shot down a DEADPOOL movie for years- is by keeping the budget low. Up until now, specific examples of how the tighter budget restricted director Tim Miller have been scant. But now, thanks to some comments from Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld (have you checked out our podcast with Rob yet?), we’ve got ourselves an example of where Miller had to tighten his belt.

Liefeld told Movies.com that Miller wanted to include Garrison Kane in the film. Here’s what Liefeld said about Kane (who would’ve been another product of “the workshop” where Wade Wilson is turned into Deadpool), and what led to the character getting axed from the script for the film:

“Kane had huge set pieces, but to get an R rating the budget was revised and not everything survived. I saw some of the models they had made for Kane, and he would’ve been very expensive. He had all these cybernetic limbs that expand and turn into guns. His hand flies off and coils. He’s an X-Force character and he has a history with Deadpool. There’s a lot of animosity there [between the two characters]. But it’s cool – Kane will just go back into the box for another time.”

So Kane was a casualty of the R-rating and the conservative budget, but it doesn’t sound like the character has been ruled out for the future. If DEADPOOL hits, it can open the door to all kinds of things, from sequels to even an X-FORCE spinoff, which is why all eyes are currently on Miller’s movie. To have all these movies exist under Fox’s X-MEN banner would be monumental for the studio, and really demonstrate how it’s actually to everyone’s benefit that the film rights for these characters haven’t reverted back to Marvel Studios who would likely never be able to give all these mutants their chance to shine. 

This isn’t Fox’s first crack at opening the door to a cinematic universe, either, as they made their initial attempt back in 2009 with X-MEN ORIGINS: Wolverine– which was going to be the first in a line of solo adventures for the franchise’s main characters, the next of which would’ve centered on Magneto. That didn’t happen, since ORIGINS was largely seen as a misfire by the studio, and their ideas for Magneto would be consolidated into the script that became X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. But in the case of DEADPOOL, which looks like it’s going to live up to their hopes, it’ll kick the door open to allow for GAMBIT to comfortably enter the fray next year. 

As mentioned before, another film that could get a boost from DEADPOOL‘s success is X-FORCE. Ryan Reynolds, for one, sounds keen to make it happen. Here’s what he told FILMSTARTS:

“There’s so much material to mine in just the X-Men universe … In the future, if we’re doing a bunch more Deadpool movies, we’re really going to explore the X-Men a lot. We’ll see. And maybe X-Force — X-Force is my priority. I really want to get that in.”

As someone who has seen DEADPOOL, I can corroborate the first part of the actor’s comments above. For now, the studio seems keen to try to get Deadpool into the main X-MEN world and onto Xavier’s team of mutant crusaders, which makes an X-FORCE movie seem a bit further down the road. 

But still, the first priority at the moment is DEADPOOL. We can’t look ahead to DEADPOOL II (which would likely include an appearance by Cable!), or Garrison Kane, or X-FORCE until the film that’s opening in three days comes out and- hopefully– makes waves. 

Are you bummed that there’s no Kane in DEADPOOL? Do you think there’ll be an X-FORCE movie one day? Are you pumped to see the movie this weekend? Sound off below!

SOURCE: Movies / FILMSTARTS

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