Popular and plentiful Deadpool fan-made costumes aside, the character's long awaited X-Men spinoff movie wasn't a part of Comic-Con International 2014. At least, not officially. Towards the end of last year's annual convention in San Diego came the infamous leak of the Deadpool test footage that set the geek world on fire.

A year later, and the Deadpool movie has its own panel presentation, where the cast of the movie and director Tim Miller took to the stage to share the first official footage of the film.

Last year's leak, which lead to what we're finally seeing today, was perfectly timed with the convention, which was already buzzing with Marvel movie and TV news. And it delivered on bringing the "Merc with a mouth" to life, the way fans wanted it done the first time around when Ryan Reynolds played a version of the character in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was such a successful "leak" that Twentieth Century Fox almost immediately got to work green-lighting a full feature film, giving it a quick release date for February 2016.

Here's a rundown of what was featured in the Deadpool Comic-Con trailer:

  • Wade Wilson (Reynolds) being told by his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) that he can overcome his illness - to which Wade quipped, "You're right. The cancer's only in my liver, lungs, prostate, and brain. All things I can live without."
  • To defeat his cancer, Wade enters something comparable to the Weapon X program (sans any government sponsorship), asking them to do right by him - and, in an obvious cheeky reference to the Reynolds-starring Green Lantern, to not make his new superhero outfit "Green... Or animated."
  • Footage from the live-action version of the 'leaked' Deadpool test footage sequence (see: Wade killing mercenary types on the highway).
  • Colossus (massive and all CGI) knocking out Deadpool, who then calls his opponent a "big chrome c**k-gobbler."
  • Deadpool killing several armed thugs atop a highway overpass, before he meets Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) for the first time. His response upon learning her name: "What the s**t?! That's the coolest name ever!"
  • In a bit of fourth-wall knocking, Deadpool says "Cue the music," as a montage of 'our hero' acting badly (dancing in a strip club, having wild sex with Vanessa) follows.
  • Weasel (T.J. Miller) comments on Wade's new appearance, with lines like "You look like an avocado that had sex with an older avocado."
  • Deadpool, upon slaughtering more people, sniffs his guns and turns to the camera to declare: "I'm touching myself tonight."

Deadpool Trailer

Now here we are, a month and a half after Deadpool has wrapped production, with three X-Men films all releasing theatrically in 2016. Deadpool leads the way, both as the first non-Wolverine solo movie in the franchise and the first Marvel-licensed film with an R-rating for Fox. We should also add that it's the first Marvel movie featuring a character who knows he's in a movie (Deadpool breaks the fourth wall as he does in the comics), adding another layer of uniqueness - one that could potentially post a challenge, when it comes time to merge the character in with Fox's other Marvel properties.

That's something we spoke with Ryan Reynolds about last week while he was promoting Self/Less. But that's down the road. For now, this is our first look at Deadpool in live-action, building off of what we can safely say is Fox's best comic book movie marketing campaign ever.

Have faith in Fox with Deadpool after seeing the first trailer? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Next: 'Wolverine 3' Begins Shooting Early Next Year

Fantastic Four opens August 7th, 2015, Deadpool on February 12th, 2016, X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27th, 2016, Gambit on October 7th, 2016, Wolverine 3 (not the official title) on March 3rd, 2017, Fantastic Four 2 on June 9th, 2017, and some as-yet unspecified X-Men film on July 13th, 2018.

Source: Twentieth Century Fox

Deadpool art by Eric J. Valdes.