Writer-director Drew Goddard has quite a lot on his hands with the upcoming X-Force movie. So far, 20th Century Fox has been two-for-two with their Deadpool movies in terms of quality (and no, we’re not counting X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and to follow it up with a bigger team-up film? That’s quite the tall order for anyone.

Needless to say, Goddard is taking the job very seriously, and when asked about the challenges of creating a hilarious film that made us care, Goddard gave an interesting TV series from which he drew inspiration:

“The answer is, I don’t worry about the jokes. I just don’t. I worry about the characters, the story, and trust that we’ll make it funny. I did this show The Good Place, and I’ve been very lucky because I work with [creator] Mike Schur and I know, ‘Oh, these are the funniest people on the planet.’ So when I do anything like that, I just worry about the character, the emotion, and the story, and then I go call them and go, ‘Make it funny now!’ With Ryan, the same thing. Ryan Reynolds is so funny. You don’t stress out about it. It’s always easier to add jokes. It’s impossible to add emotion.”

For those who don’t know, The Good Place is a story about a woman, played by Kristen Bell, who ends up in “the Good Place” after dying. The only problem is, her being sent there was a mistake, as she was kind of an awful person when she was alive. Thus begins her struggle to stay hidden so that she won’t get sent to the Bad Place. It’s a wonderfully high concept idea that is executed to near perfection, and it’s nice to see his inspiration, which is right at home with the Deadpool approach.

Like Deadpool, it doesn’t seem like they create the story around funny ideas, but instead create an intriguing premise that can be used to develop characters, and from there, let the jokes emerge from the situations. It’s how they get us to care about the characters in the show, and I’d argue that it’s also how Deadpool manages to get us to care about a foul-mouthed murdering mercenary.

Do you think this is the right approach for X-Force? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: /Film