comikaze 2014

This year’s fourth-annual Comikaze in Los Angeles was just where you wanted to be if you wished to learn more about 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Deadpool film, based on the Marvel character from Rob Liefeld who sat on stage to discuss a little bit about the process behind getting the film going. The film has taken about four years or so to come to fruition having shot some outright juicy concept footage with VFX whiz Tim Miller in the director’s chair and actor Ryan Renyolds giving a rather well-received all-around performance at Blur Studios.

As time would prove much later, however, said footage remained locked away at the prominent motion-capture studio without anyone ever knowing how awesome a job they did beyond their walls until it was finally leaked online earlier this year, and much to Liefeld’s own approval at that. “…Cut to that footage is in the locker for three years…three years, and god bless whoever leaked that.” says Liefeld, in part. “Whoever leaked it and goes to jail, we need to cheer them…”

The character himself has had a few screen appearances, but eventually grew a more popular audience Renyolds embracing the character in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the actor has been one of the biggest proponents for getting the character his own standalone feature film ever since. That being said, after years of languishing in development hell, the film was finally greenlit back in September with a release date set for February 12, 2016, with further details needed on whether or not the film would be getting an R-rating in favor of fans’ demands, or fall in line with the rest of the comic book movie community with a PG-13 rating.

Of course, things are never official until they are *quote fingers* “official”, which is the current case for whether or not Renyolds himself will don the black and red and all of Deadpool‘s arsenal of heavy metal and quick-wit. Needless to say though, it’s pretty obvious by now, especially to Liefeld. “Ryan is Deadpool.” he asserted. “Look, Ryan Reynolds, he’s gone through that same career arc, the guy is ridiculously talented. He has a huge, huge passion for Deadpool. Deadpool’s not happening, because he was a giant star, they said, ‘Ryan, what do you want to do?’ And he said, ‘Deadpool.’ That’s why it happened. They would have no faith otherwise. That movie is because of his passion. He put together the team.” He then added to the anticipation by letting the audience in on what they can expect from the film compared to Blur Studios’ footage, saying “That’s nothing of what you’re going to see.”

In that same discussion earlier on, Liefeld also shared a few more highlights on the possible future of a standalone film for Marvel’s fellow futuristic time traveling supersoldier, Cable. The character was initially slated as part of an ensemble line-up for 20th Century Fox’s pending X-Force movie from writer and hopeful director Jeff Wadlow. And though further details are yet to be revealed about Deadpool‘s status in the film, Liefeld managed cleared some things up, sharing the moment when he sat with producers to discuss the future of Marvel’s big screen adaptations. “…So I sat there with a bunch of producers, and we sat for several hours, and we talked about different ideas.” said Liefeld. “And I tried to steer them in directions I think. For instance, I’ll tell you, first question they said, ‘Rob, does Cable need to be in the Deadpool movie?’ And I said, ‘No, Deadpool deserves his own function and Cable should come in in his own movie.’ And they were like, ‘Ok, because we were thinking about…’ And I was like, ‘No, you can do them both separately. They don’t need to be in the same movie.’ Look, we had a long talk, we had some ideas, I can’t share them, some of them made it across the finish line.”.

Though it may not be clear about just how 20th Century Fox will handle these properties, just a few things do seem certain: Much like Channing Tatum’s Gambit, Deadpool, and with any luck, Cable, may very well get their own screentime in individual films long before any ensemble projects are made. Furthermore, also worth noting is what the Marvel flick producer and screenwriter for Fox, Simon Kinberg, stated earlier this month with regard to whether or not Deadpool‘s spin-off would fit into the studio’s currently growing X-Men universe, to which he answered in part “There’s definitely a sort of overall plan that we’ve all been talking about for the X-Men universe now,” Kinberg said, “and Deadpool obviously fits into that.”

Sounds pretty convenient considering that the film will arrive just three months shy of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27, 2016. As for all things Cable and recent murmurs of a Quicksilver standalone flick, we can pretty much expect to wait a little longer on some info there.

QUESTION: Which actor would you like to see cast as Cable in a forthcoming standalone film? Comment below!

H/T: Comic Book

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