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EXCLUSIVE: In one of the first major blows to the 2024 theatrical release schedule due to the ongoing actors strike, sources tell us that Marvel Studios‘ Deadpool 3 won’t be making its May 3 start-of-summer theatrical release date. Even if the strike ends in the next few weeks, a 2024 restart on the half-finished Deadpool 3 would not get the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman threequel to a May opening date.
There’s just too much to do in regards to re-assembling crew, etc. Note, this is just the beginning for 2024 titles; other studios have yet to play the game of three-card monte with their most notable films that are in positions similar to Deadpool 3.
What happens to the start of the summer now?
There is a long shot per sources that Captain America: Brave New World, which was originally on May 3rd, and then pushed to July 26, actually moves back because it’s in better shape than Deadpool 3, having finished production.
Disney typically holds onto highly coveted release dates, therefore if Deadpool 3 doesn’t go to July 26, then there are other options, such as early November, which has been rich to Marvel with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($859.2M WW) and Thor: Ragnarok ($855.3M WW) or Dec. 20, 2024; which is where Marvel Studio’s Thunderbolts is already dated. Marvel paused start of production on Thunderbolts back in May as Deadline first reported due to the onset of the WGA strike.
The previous two Deadpools were release under 20th Century Fox, and the third film here is the first hatched under the Kevin Feige-run Disney owned Marvel Studios, post-merger. The Deadpool franchise stands at $1.56 billion WW and broke ground for R-rated Marvel movies with mass audiences.
“I wasn’t going to mess with the DNA of that franchise,” Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy told Deadline at TIFF about his approach to the threequel. The filmmaker is the third to take on the Merc with a Mouth after the first pic’s director Tim Miller, and second director, David Leitch.
“Our movie is raw, audacious, very much R-rated and we went to great lengths to not shoot it on sound stages with digital environments,” Levy teased.
“We wanted something that felt, grounded, real…You put Hugh Jackman in his most iconic character alongside Ryan Reynolds in his most iconic character; it’s more of a descendant of Midnight Run, and 48 Hours, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles more than it’s a descendant of Airplane.”
While certain prolific movies such as Taylor Swift: Eras Tour ($92.8M opening), Nun II ($32.6M), and Equalizer 3 ($34.6M) didn’t see their openings greatly impacted by the actors’ strike, distribution sources believe the thespian walkout, and the fact that they can’t promote, has diluted ticket sales. Several notable movies did not perform up to snuff, i.e. The Creator, A Haunting in Venice, and Dumb Money to name a few.
As Deadline reported earlier today, the town’s biggest stars offer to kick in $150M over three years to end stalemate between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA.
Disney did not return request for comment on the above news. The studio hasn’t made official the news of Deadpool 3 moving.