Deadpool & Wolverine Director Says It's Like an Early MCU Movie: "The Character Stakes Are More Important"

Deadpool & Wolverine comes to theaters later this month. Details of the plot are still pretty under wraps.

By Russ Burlingame

Deadpool & Wolverine isn't just the third installment in one of Marvel's most successful film franchises; it's also a multiverse story. After the box office performance of movies like Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and The Flash, one could be forgiven for being just slightly skeptical of that, but it seems as though Deadpool & Wolverine is avoiding the stigma. A big part of that is the fact that it's being marketed based largely on personality, rather than plot or "the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe." That not only helps them keep the story largely under wraps, but it also plays right into the plan for the franchise.

In a new interview, Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy compared the movie to some of the earlier Marvel movies, where there were powerful villains doing dangerous things, but the stakes of the movie remain rooted in character. The premise here is that a semi-retired Deadpool faces the loss of his loved ones and their hard-earned happily ever after, and that's way more compelling than a big hole in the sky.

"The character stakes are more important than the global MCU stakes," Levy told EW.

The philosophy of a Marvel movie where the character stakes were more important than the "Marvel Universe" stakes was something that guided the production of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, where the story of Rocket Raccoon took center stage with the fate of the multiverse less of an immediate concern to writer/director James Gunn. That movie went on to be the highest-grossing and best-reviewed Marvel movie in two years.

In Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen as Paradox, and Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, with the return of Deadpool alums Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Stefan Kapičić as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Rob Delaney as Peter, and Lewis Tan as Shatterstar. Aaron Stanford is returning as Pyro from the X-Men film series, with Jennifer Garner rumored to return as Elektra Natchios. 

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Kevin Feige, Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D'Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey and Simon Kinberg serving as executive producers. Deadpool & Wolverine is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy. 

Deadpool & Wolverine will be released exclusively in theaters on July 26th.

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