Deadpool 3 Director Shawn Levy Reveals MCU Sequel Pays Respect to Fox Marvel History

With the upcoming third installment in the Ryan Reynolds-led Deadpool franchise, the Merc with a Mouth will officially be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The rights to Deadpool, Wolverine, and all of the X-Men reverted to Marvel Studios when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox a few years back, and Deadpool 3 will represent the first major Mutant project from Marvel Studios since that merger. Of course, being the self-aware franchise Deadpool is, the film is going to reference the X-Men film origins over at Fox.

Deadpool 3 is already bringing back Hugh Jackman to once again play Wolverine, which will tie the story to the X-Men days of old. Photos from the set have indicated that the meta film will directly address 20th Century Fox by name. While speaking to Total Film magazine, Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy confirmed that the new movie will indeed honor the legacy of the franchise that came before.

"Deadpool and Wolverine are iconic Marvel characters; more specifically, iconic Marvel-of-the-Fox-era characters," Levy explained. "We're not going to pretend, 'Oh, we snap our fingers and suddenly that Fox legacy doesn't exist, and it shaped a lot of what we now know as the MCU.' Fox also shaped Ryan's career, Hugh's career and my career. So there's a lot of history there, and there's a lot of Marvel history at Fox. And certainly that's a part of our storytelling."

Reynolds and Jackman Have Great Chemistry

It's no secret that Reynolds and Jackman have been buddies for a long time, and they've always talked about making this on-screen team up happen. It should come as no surprise at this point that the duo have developed excellent chemistry with one another.

"Well, like the rest of our industry, or at least large swaths of it, we are paused. We were halfway through filming Deadpool, co-starring Wolverine. It was a joy every day, and that chemistry is, I have to say, spoiler alert, it is as relentlessly awesome as we had all hoped it would be," Levy recently told Deadline. "But we are halfway through filming, we shut down, our crew and the rest of us are awaiting a fair and equitable deal that ends these strikes and puts our industry and certainly inclusive of our movie back at work."

Deadpool 3 will not only be the first foray into the MCU for Reynolds and Jackman, it will also be the first movie from Marvel Studios to be rated-R. 

Are you excited for Deadpool's debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let us know in the comments!