Deadpool was quite the surprise back in 2016. Those who had been following the project since after X-Men Origins: Wolverine left its stink all over the character had been hoping it would see success, but to see an R-rated superhero comedy ascend to the heights it did — $783.1 million worldwide at the box office — wasn’t expected.

Now, Deadpool seems to be ushering in bigger things with the introduction of X-Force in Deadpool 2. But as the world gets bigger and the stakes get greater in this spinoff franchise, can it actually compete with the big players — namely, the Avengers? Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld recently spoke with Fandango, and here’s what he had to say about that.

RELATED – Deadpool 2 Final Trailer Continues To Bring The Laughs And Intrigue

“Well, this version, yes. I’m confident about the X-Force — that it’s an R-rated Avengers in the making. You can see where Fox is building up a roster that rivals what happened over with the Avengers. They built up piece by piece this impressive group of personalities, and actors, and talent that people just responded to. So I’m obviously at a disadvantage. I’ve seen more than the average Joe has seen, but I see how well it clicks, and I think that when you throw the R-rating in there, the X-Force can absolutely rival the Avengers. X-Force is not family friendly, and that matters, too. I definitely do see them building their version of the Avengers with this.”

Of course, the Avengers films have one thing that the X-Force doesn’t — standalone films. Pretty much everything here is spinning off of Deadpool, rather than culminating from multiple perspectives. This puts them at a slight disadvantage in that fans of multiple franchises won’t be coming to see X-Force in theaters — they’ll only really be coming for Deadpool.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While Marvel’s approach worked, it’s not the end-all approach for creating a shared universe. So long as the movies continue to be good, we could very well have another big franchise on our hands in the long run.

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: Fandango