Perhaps the biggest movie surprise of 2016 so far has been the enormous success of 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool, starring a resurgent Ryan Reynolds as the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Wade Wilson. Having made a whopping $760 million at the worldwide box office, its measly $58 million budget has ensured massive profits and at the very least one sequel that’s currently in the works.

In fact, the film’s screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were so eager to pen a sequel, they did so before it had even been greenlit. But their love for the foul-mouthed anti-hero doesn’t stop there because the writers say they want to continue creating Wade Wilson/Deadpool stories for a long time to come.

Speaking about the R-rated Deadpool to CBR ahead of its home release, Reese and Wernick were all about the originality of a project such as Deadpool, rather than churning out a superhero movie based on a tried and tested, safer formula. They said the intent was “to get people more excited about following original voices and going down original paths, as opposed to trying to figure out what about our movie succeeded so they could then apply to theirs.” The pair went on to confirm that the pair were officially working on the follow-up and emphasized how much they want to be a part of the character’s future on the big screen. As Wernick put it:

Wernick was quick to add their love for the provocative character that is The Merc With a Mouth and, surprisingly, how easy it was to craft the dialogue when there was no blue-print being enforced by Fox.

We’re writing the sequel, so that’s ongoing. We would very much like to be a part of whatever this character is a part of moving forward. So I think that’s certainly in our heads.

We just love the character so much. It’s the most fun character we’ve ever written. Interestingly, the easiest character we’ve ever written. Because I think he is the most fun to write, so it’s such a pleasure to sit down at the keyboard, that we would like to live with him for a very long time.

He also revealed that, due to the success of the movie, X-Men movies series producer Simon Kinberg is going all-out for Deadpool 2. That includes pushing the limits of character inclusion (which could be a massive boost depending on who they manage to negotiate the rights for):

Interestingly, Wernick was also quick to defend the romanticized nature of the way they promoted the first Deadpool as being a sort of rom-com for a largely unsuspecting audience.

We’ve been give a little more free reign in terms of like the access to that list, in terms of Simon Kinberg, who’s the keeper of the universe, has said, “whatever, whoever you want to use, we’ll figure it out.” That’s pretty great for us and pretty freeing.

There’s no question that Deadpool performed far better at the box offcie than anyone could have imagined, and it was largely down to the sharp script and direction; not to mention, it was something tonally very different to anything Fox had done before. Its R-rated notoriety likely enticed curious general filmgoers too, but it didn’t simply use this as an excuse for gratuitous violence, language, and sex - and hopefully that mature sensibility will resonate in the sequel and beyond. Already there is talk about a Spider-Man/Deadpool crossover and other universe expansions, so it looks like there’s plenty more of the ultra-violent, ultra sweary Deadpool on its way in the coming years.

Because all those Nicholas Sparks-[style] ads, the billboards that were up around Los Angeles touting it as a romantic Valentine’s movie, that’s what it is. It is a love story. It is the beating heart of the movie. And that’s what I think people tapped into.

Deadpool hits Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD formats on May 10, 2016. X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters May 27th, 2016, followed by Wolverine 3 on March 3rd, 2017, and unannounced X-Men films on October 6th, 2017 (possibly Gambit), January 12th, 2018 (possibly Deadpool 2), and July 13th, 2018. The New Mutants is also in development.

Source: CBR