The DEADPOOL Movie Is Happening! Ryan Reynolds Expected Back As The Merc With A Mouth

I had barely hit the Publish button on my article earlier today regarding Ryan Reynolds’ reaction to the leaked Deadpool test footage when word broke online that 20th Century Fox had honest-to-God actually green-lit the spin-off movie wanted so badly by fans and Reynolds alike.

Fox confirmed the news on Twitter, via an article from The Hollywood Reporter, that the popular Marvel anti-hero would get his big screen solo shot set for a February 12, 2016 release date.

Tim Miller, who spearheaded the proposed hard-R film’s test footage where Deadpool frequently breaks the fourth wall, is still attached to direct the film. Ryan Reynolds is reportedly expected to return to the role he first took on in 2009’s disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Thankfully, the continuity cleansing events of X-Men: Days of Future Past will allow Reynolds to  step back into role again without a hitch and ignore the less than stellar treatment (and death) of the character in Origins.

Now whether Fox is all gung ho in going with a violent hard-R film with a lead character that talks to the audience, now that’s a whole other thing to wait and see on. But the release date is encouraging. If Fox will go out of the box with Deadpool as far as typical comic book movies go, getting it out of the gate way before the summer movies, or even spring movies, will allow it room to breathe and not get buried by tentpoles. The 2016 box office bloodbath will likely officially kick off with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, due on March 25, 2016.

Also of note in THR’s news, Fox’s Josh Trank-helmed Fantastic Four reboot has been pushed from June 19th, 2015 to August 7th (taking the spot previously held by the studio’s big screen adaptation of the video game Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender, which now lies in release limbo). Early August is a better spot for FF, which is betting more on franchise recognition than A-List star power. The later release will put it out of harm’s way of the top heavy tent pole release schedule of summer 2015.

SOURCE: THR