Deadpool has tried its hand at Valentine’s Day marketing and now the successful superhero franchise is aiming for a different holiday.
Once Upon a Deadpool is getting a limited release in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. The film is an adaptation of Deadpool 2, last May's R-rated box office hit. The twist? The superhero film is coming back as a PG-13 family movie.
“Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006,” Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds told Deadline “I’ve said no since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘Yes’ on two conditions.”
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The first condition; some of the proceeds go to charity. In true Deadpool spirit, the studio partnered with an organization called “Fuck Cancer,” which will be rebranded to “Fudge Cancer” for promotional purposes. One dollar will be donated for each ticket sold.
The second condition was that Reynolds got to kidnap Fred Savage. Yes, you read that right. Savage, of The Princess Bride, will appear in the framing sequence of the movie. The plot of the new film will draw heavily from The Princess Bride, according to Fox. It will feature a combination of new scenes and footage from the original Deadpool 2. The runtime of the film is similar to Deadpool 2, but the studio has not commented on how much of the footage will be new.
Deadpool is currently owned by Fox rather than Marvel, but Disney owns both studios. The move to make Deadpool more family-friendly may simply be a holiday treat for teens— or it could foreshadow a greater integration of the raunchy superhero into the Marvel universe. Whatever the fate of the franchise may be, it will stay true to the character. “Deadpool has been a unique property” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick told Deadline, “by definition, what’s in a Deadpool movie is all the stuff that can’t be in any other superhero movie.” This “stuff” now includes disco and Santa hats.
The film will be in theaters from December 12 until Christmas Eve.