We don’t know when Fox will be releasing Deadpool 2, and the wait has just gotten a little harder. Collider is reporting that the first Deadpool film’s screenwriters, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are no longer working on the project and have been replaced by Drew Goddard.
The report does not say if they were fired or if Goddard, who is working with Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds on this draft, was brought in to whip what the pair have already turned in.
From what I’m hearing, Ryan Reynolds and Goddard have been bunkered down, working on the script together, trying to cross the finish line and create something everyone is excited to make.
Just in case you’ve had your head in the sand for the past decade or more and aren’t familiar with Goddard’s work, let us fill you in. As a writer, he cut his teeth on both Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel, before jumping to the big screen penning the monster movie Cloverfield. He teamed up with Buffy creator Joss Whedon to co-write Cabin In The Woods, which then became Goddard’s directorial debut. He also worked on the World War Z and The Martian screenplays before bringing Daredevil to Netflix.
Needless to say, he’s got some serious genre cred. And the fact that he is working on this is exciting news. The man knows humor, he knows action and he knows how comic book properties should work on the screen.
Goddard is not the first new creative to come onto the sequel, replacing someone from the original film. The original film’s director, Tim Miller, has dropped out of the sequel, leaving his seat to be filled by John Wick co-director David Leitch last November. Interestingly, Goddard was on the studio’s shortlist to take over the director’s chair after Miller left, only to get beat out by Leitch.
While Deadpool 2 has no release date, production on the sequel is expected to start up this summer. Fox does have a flag planted on March 8, 2018 for an as yet unrevealed Fox/Marvel film, so it is possible that Deadpool 2 could open then.
