When it comes to Hollywood, you can pretty much bank on success breeding imitators. It’s happened time and time again, most recently with the YA boom followingThe Hunger Games’ explosive opening, and it inevitably leads to a string of misfires that learned the wrong lesson in the first place. WithThe Hunger Games, character and thematic resonance were key, but other studios simply saw “dystopia + female lead” and ran rampant with adaptations likeDivergentandThe 5th Wave. So it stands to reason that, in the wake of the unprecedented box office success ofDeadpool, the comic book movie genre is in for a shakeup. But how, exactly, will this play out, and what effect will 20th Century Fox’sDeadpoolhave on existing superhero franchises?
The wrong lesson to glean fromDeadpool’s success is that audiences just want R-rated superhero movies. Folks didn’t simply turn out in droves becauseDeadpoolhad naughty language (this isn’t the first R-rated superhero movie, after all—see:Kick-Ass,Watchmen, etc.). They came for the uniquely irreverent tone, from which the profanity, violence, and by extension R-rating sprouted organically.Deadpooloffers something entirely different within the superhero genre—something audiences have never seen before—andthat’swhy it was such a huge success. Well that and a brilliant marketing campaign.
While we’re in the midst of the superhero movie’s heyday, the genre is constantly evolving andDeadpoolcould mark another step in that evolution. 2014’sGuardians of the Galaxyproved that superhero movies didn’t have to be either dark and serious or colorful and fun, they could also beweirdand non-traditional, andDeadpooltakes that weirdness one step further by refusing to take the genre as a whole seriously. Superheroes are silly and whileGuardianshad its fair share of self-referential material,Deadpooladdresses this explicitly, calling out the conventions of the traditional superhero movie and turning them on their head.
So what does this mean in the immediate future? It’s hard to tell, but the lukewarm fan response toAvengers: Age of Ultron(which was its own kind of weird, but more serious), intense passion forGuardians of the Galaxy, and wild success ofDeadpoolcould signal a step further into “fun” territory, which means a step furtherawayfrom the dramatic and serious boon thatBatman BeginsandThe Dark Knightbegan.
The real litmus test here will be just how bigBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justiceis. The film is very much being sold on the grave seriousness at the heart of the story, which stands in stark contrast to the Marvel Studios mold. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but ifDeadpoolhas audiences climbing the walls, it’ll be interesting to see how they react toBatman v Superman—a tone and story arc they definitelyhaveseen before, and many times. Is there still room for theChristopher Nolanapproach, or have audiences tired a bit of that kind of superhero movie in favor of something, well, different?
The Warner Bros. mold tackles its comic book adaptations with a much more dramatic angle, but the studio already seems to be hedging its bets by selling this August’sSuicide Squadas their version of fun and irreverent (though not necessarily self-referencial)—themost recent trailerscreamsGuardians of the Galaxy. It feels likeDavid Ayer’s villain-centric pic has the potential to be the studio’s big breakout film of 2016, but the fact remains they’ve got a slate built onZack Snyder’sBatman v Supermantone that includes a World War I-setWonder Womanand a Snyder-helmedJustice League. If audiences react less than enthusiastically toBatman v Supermanwhen the film opens next month, it may be time to rethink that strategy.
But Warner Bros. does have the option of going R-rated, and it wouldn’t be entirely out of the realm of possibility. ProducerCharles Rovenpreviously told us all of their planned films up throughJustice Leagueare intended to be PG-13, but those plans could certainly change on account ofDeadpool’s success. Levity is key, though, so one imagines the studio would want to tread carefully when combining their dramatic approach with an R-rating to avoid getting mired in the doom and gloom, not to mention the rating should be the right fit for the property—an R-rated version ofThe Flashis probably not the best of ideas, and there’s no way they make an R-ratedBatmanmovie, right?
Marvel Studios, meanwhile, has an advantage in that their approach has never been overtly serious. They take their characters seriously, yes, but the colorful palettes and humorous sensibilities always shine through with an acknowledgment that superheroes are inherently a little silly, and with an upcoming slate that includesGuardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2,Doctor Strange, and aTaika Waititi-directedThor: Ragnarok, they’re not exactly lacking in the variety department. What theydon’thave is the ability to venture into R-rated territory, given that they’re owned by Disney, so while they can certainly get irreverent to a point, the Marvel approach is family friendly at its core.
And then there’s 20th Century Fox, the studio that for so long resisted the riskyDeadpooladaptation and now stands to gain the most from its success. TheRyan Reynolds-fronted film now exists within an interconnectedX-Menuniverse, so injecting his character into future films like present day-setX-Mensequels and theGambitspinoffwould automatically infuse those movies with a smidge of theDeadpoolflavor, but as producer/Fox superhero guruSimon Kinbergrecently said,not every superhero movie is improved by making it R-rated.
Kinberg did mention one specific property that, should it get off the ground, hecouldenvision as being R-rated in nature, and that’sX-Force, which is like a darker version of the X-Men. That seems like the next logical step for Fox, besidestheDeadpoolsequel, and the film that could carry this very specific, self-referential tone squarely into the “shared universe” era. It’s also possible thatHugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie could land an R-rating, given thatThe Wolverinenearly did.
While it’s unclear exactly what will happen next on account ofDeadpool’s success, we can definitely count onsomesort of reaction. Studios will no doubt want to capitalize on the profitable nature ofDeadpool’s performance by making their own smaller-budgeted, more risky adaptations (ie. R-rated), but the question is whether they’ll have learned the right lesson—thatDeadpoolworked because it’s irreverentandunique, not just irreverent—or if we’ll simply get a slew of pale imitations, no doubt of the R-rated nature. Speaking from experience post-Guardians of the Galaxy, filmmakerJames Gunnseems to think it’ll be the latter, and history tells us he’s probably right, but I’d argue one studio that got the right idea fromGuardianswas Fox, who saw that “risky” Marvel movie’s success as a big reason to take a gamble onDeadpool—it’s no coincidence Fox finally gave the film the greenlight a month afterGuardiansopened in theaters to massive success.
So then what, specifically, will we see happen at the major studios currently making comic book movies? Marvel’s family friendly atmosphere may mean business as usual, but between Warner Bros.’ very serious tone and Fox’s position to capitalize on theDeadpoolcraze directly, the scramble could be on to either change course significantly or quickly put a different kind of comic book adaptation into fast development. Whatever the case,Deadpool’s success is a testament to the passion and perseverance of Reynolds, directorTim Miller, and writersRhett ReeseandPaul Wernickin the face of continuous pushback, so it’s serendipitous to see them now leading the charge of the next stage in the superhero movie genre’s evolution.
