Ryan Reyolds’ Deadpool 3 had paused production due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. With the Writer’s strike ending, news of significant rewrites in the film’s script have surfaced. According to an insider source, the film’s plot which had Earth-838 has been scrapped from the storyline during the rewrites.
Deadpool 3 is the MCU debut of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, after the Fox-Disney merger. Many believed it to be the film where the X-Men would be officially introduced in the MCU. However, these creative overhauls seem to question whether the makers know the direction in which the films and shows are going.
Earth-838 Will Be Scrapped From Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3
While there were fears that Fox Studios’ merger with Disney would impact the R–rating of Deadpool 3, Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy assured fans later that the sequel would maintain its R-rating. The film would be the MCU debut of Deadpool and it was also announced that Hugh Jackman would be returning to the role of Logan a.k.a Wolverine.
Reports also indicated that the film would be exploring Earth-838 and Reynolds would be facing that universe’s Magneto. The alternative universe was headed by the Illuminati, as shown in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. In the film, Doctor Strange and America Chavez verse-jump into that reality while being hunted by Wanda Maximoff, who ultimately kills the Illuminati.
The film introduced Earth-838’s version of superheroes such as Mr. Fantastic, Captain Carter, and Professor X. Deadpool 3 reportedly explored the events after the Multiverse of Madness, with many speculating about the return of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch in the film.
However, noted X user and trusted source ‘dborn1’ leaked that the Earth-838 storyline had been scrapped from the Ryan Reynolds starrer. The user tweeted,
“This is my final leak EVER. Just wanted to correct something I said. It appears @AlexFromCC was right the plan was for Mephisto to buy Avengers Tower. Also, Universe 838 was part of Deadpool 3’s plot. But they changed all of it in rewrites so I guess his intel was just outdated”
This news along with reports that Olsen would not be appearing in the film has disappointed fans, who are now skeptical about the film’s release on May 3, 2024.
Does Marvel Know What It Is Doing?
While reshoots and rewrites are part of the process for big-scale blockbuster films, Marvel has lately come under fire for their misses with past releases. The franchise has been going downhill critically and commercially since Phase Four and the makers seem to be exploring massive overhauls behind the scenes.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Kevin Feige had let go of the head writers behind the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again midway through production as he was dissatisfied with the material till then. Similar issues were faced during the production of Secret Invasion and the series was one of the worst-rated media from Marvel.
These reports concern fans as it seems like Marvel does not know what it is doing anymore. Joanna Robinson, author of the book MCU: The Reign of the Marvel Studios, mentioned that the studio executives believed that they had a sure-shot winner with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which turned out to be a box office disaster. She said in The Watch podcast,
“My understanding is that Quantumania really shook them because they felt like they had something good…Quantumania they thought they put out a banger but that is not how anyone else felt.”
With the apparent climactic event films of the ‘Multiverse Saga’ Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars on the horizon, along with legacy films like Deadpool 3 and Fantastic Four, fans seem to fear that the studio has lost its mojo.
