Ryan Reynolds says the title for Deadpool & Wolverine was changed at the very last minute due to fan backlash.
Deadpool & Wolverine opens in United States theaters on July 26, 2024, as part of Phase 5 of the MCU. The film sees Reynolds reprise his role as Wade Wilson/Deadpool alongside Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, while Emma Corrin also stars in the movie as Cassandra Nova.
Deadpool & Wolverine was originally going to be called Deadpool & Friend
Speaking to Jackman on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Reynolds revealed that Deadpool & Wolverine was originally going to be called Deadpool & Friend; however, they decided to change the title the day before the first trailer was released.
“The movie was originally called Deadpool & Friend. I am actually not joking. On the eve of the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl is where we first launched the trailer for Deadpool & — not Friend, but Wolverine — it leaked because of the son of the b*****s on the internet. The title leaked. We looked at it and listened, and they f****** hated that title. We were not feeling so good about that anymore.”
Reynolds said that he and director Shawn Levy were sitting in the editing room and watching people react to the Deadpool & Friend title, at which point they called “everyone” at Disney and Marvel saying they needed to change it.
While Marvel Studios and Disney employees didn’t necessarily want to change the title at first given that the marketing for the movie was about to kick off, Reynolds said that he and Levy had to put their feet down.
“You had to push them on everything so we just wouldn’t take no for an answer,” he said. “We were like, ‘No, we’re f****** changing the title, I will never call this movie Deadpool & Friend.’ And they did it, they did it. They really changed the title.”
