Deadpool fans will be excited to learn the long awaited third film in the X-Men spin-off franchise is finally moving forward as a director has been found.
The action packed, and surprisingly violent, superhero comedy film series first launched on the big screen back in 2016 with Ryan Reynolds reprising his role from the poorly received X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
After proving to be a smash hit, the film spawned a sequel that was released in 2018 – but a third film in the series was complicated by the fact that Disney bought 20th Century Fox which distributed the first two films.
There were concerns that this could affect the production of the third Deadpool film – or even kill off the franchise – but 45-year-old Canadian actor Ryan has confirmed the film is moving forward and has found it’s director.
Taking to social media on Friday, the actor shared a photo of himself as three characters – Deadpool, Guy/Dude from Free Guy and Adam from The Adam Project.
He wrote alongside the image: “The third film in my Shawn Levy trilogy will be a tad more stabby.”
The update left fans excited as it made clear that 53-year-old Shawn – who directed Free Guy and The Adam Project – has been handed the reigns of Deadpool’s third film.
One fan gushed: “DEADPOOL 3 CONFIRMED YESSS” – while another X-Men fanatic simply tweeted in reply: “Let’s gooo!”.
Variety also reported on Shawn’s appointment, writing: “The director of Free Guy and The Adam Project will once again team up with Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool 3, the much-anticipated third installment of the comedic action franchise.”
They added: “Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who penned the first two Deadpool films, will write the third movie based on the X-Men comic book character, created by Rob Liefeld.”
The outlet noted that this meant Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin and Wendy Molyneux, Emmy-winning writers of Bobs Burgers, had effectively been replaced as the writers of the third film.
The first two films proved to be smash hist, becoming the top grossing X-Men films of the franchise and earning over $780 million (£598 million).
The box office success was all the more surprising as the violent nature of the movies led to the first two being given R-ratings in the USA which generally limit the number of people who can watch the films and can dent earning potential.
There had been concerned future Deadpool films would be less violent due to the 20th Centruy Fox company being bought by family-friendly Disney – who also own Marvel, which is the comic book company Deadpool originates from.
But former CEO Bob Iger had previously downplayed this risk.
He said in 2019: “We will continue in that business… There’s certainly popularity [with those R-rated types of films].”
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