This post contains SPOILERS for Deadpool 2
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Ryan Reynolds and company had a very difficult time acquiring the X-Men Origins: Wolverine footage to complete one of Deadpool 2's most hilarious moments. While the film proper is loaded with all kinds of outrageous jokes and one-liners, it's the jaw-dropping mid-credits scene that really got people talking. After Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio repaired Cable's time travel device, Wade Wilson abused its power to right several wrongs and fix the timeline. Outside of saving Vanessa from her death, the correction that arguably meant the most to Deadpool was going back to erase the infamous "Barakapool" once and for all.
As many fans know, the solo Deadpool movies are not the first time Ryan Reynolds portrayed the character. He first brought life to the Merc With a Mouth in 2009's maligned Origins: Wolverine, which (putting it lightly) did not go over well. While audiences enjoyed Reynolds' performance, the movie's handling of the character was widely panned, particularly the silent abomination Logan and Sabertooth battled during the film's climax. The Origins Deadpool has been the subject of several gags in the "real" Deadpool films, but the best one was in danger of never happening.
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Appearing on the Empire Film Podcast to discuss box office hit Deadpool 2, Reynolds revealed how hard it was for the sequel's team to get the stock footage from Origins so they could implement it in their stinger:
“We had a dick of a time trying to get the actual raw footage though from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie was shot on film, it wasn’t shot on digital so it was harder to get. We were sitting there on the Fox lot, the exact piece of the movie we need had been damaged on whatever the transfer was, so we had to go to some backup which was in some vault somewhere in the middle of the country, the United States, and we ended up finally, at the last second inputting it into the movie. For me, I was literally losing sleep over it though, I was thinking ‘oh my god, how are we going to do this, am I going to have to call Hugh and ask him to shoot this chunk that looks exactly like a movie he’s already done?’ I can’t think of a worse hell for a human being to do.”
Since reshooting the Origins scene was a thought that crossed Reynolds' mind, he was obviously committed to including the bit in the film. Even though Hugh Jackman would have been available to film it (none of his upcoming projects were in production while Deadpool 2 was in principal photography), there still could have been scheduling issues, and it's simply easier to drop in footage that was already produced years ago. Especially since the Origins gag is but a fleeting moment, it may have been a step too far to ask the crew to dedicate a day to recapturing it exactly the way it was almost 10 years ago. Fortunately, the Deadpool 2 team got what they needed and was able to preserve one of the movie's biggest laughs.
In the wake of Deadpool 2's success, the mid-credits sequence has been the subject of much discussion, particularly with regards to how it pertains to X-Men movie canon. Writers Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick have confirmed the events actually did happen, so it'll be interesting to see what ramifications Wade's actions have on future installments. People probably aren't going to shed any tears about Origins being wiped out, but other changes (like Vanessa being alive) present some fascinating threads for sequels to explore.
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Source: Empire Film Podcast
