The reverberation of the mammoth box-office success of Deadpool will be felt for years. That might sound like a hyperbolic statement, but a $150 million four-day opening off the back of a reported $58 million budget will provoke that kind of excessive response.
We spoke previously about the knock on effect for star and producer, Ryan Reynolds. This morning he'll be getting offers and dibs on scripts ahead of the likes of Bradley Cooper for likely the first time in his career; his next couple of steps are crucial - and obviously mean a bunch of Deadpool sequels.
Many critics have taken aim at the comic book genre; bemoaning the fact that they're the only big budgeted non-sequels that studios will greenlight. What Deadpool has done is flip it aggressively on its head. It succeeded where the likes of Watchmen and Kick-Ass failed - it was an adult adaptation that has just found global success.
Inevitably we'll see some other fringe comic book characters cursing and being gleefully violent on the big screen, but we might also see more 'R' rated films, aimed ostensibly at a more refined audience. That's what Deadpool did and the proof is in the pudding. It didn't pander to who the studio THOUGHT the audience was, it just allowed the passionate creative team do their thing.
While we can absolutely expect to see Wade Wilson in the broader Marvel universe now, it would ultimately only make sense if they were on his terms. This could possibly mean an 'R' rated Wolverine movie, giving that character the gruff platform fans have craved and Hugh Jackman thoroughly deserves. Jackman is as suited to Logan as Reynolds is to Deadpool, and the success of the latter should inform the direction of the former. Reynolds and Jackman have enjoyed a really fun back and forth over social media and are obviously friendly.
For now, though, go see Deadpool if you haven't already. We want to see that sequel pushing the boundaries again sooner rather than later. We can but hope for a Wolverine film with half the balls.
