‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Was Originally Titled ‘Deadpool & Friend’

Deadpool and Wolverine

Turns out, Deadpool & Wolverine almost had a different title — and it was changed at the last second after the original title for the movie leaked online. Yep, Deadpool & Wolverine was, up until the Super Bowl earlier this year, titled Deadpool & Friend.

The news was revealed by Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, as he and Hugh Jackman co-hosted last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“I’ve never told this story anywhere,” Reynolds said, “but… The movie was originally called Deadpool & Friend. I am actually not joking. And on the eve of the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl is where we first launched the trailer for Deadpool & Not Friend But Wolverine, it leaked. ‘Cause the son of a b**ches on the internet, the title leaked. And we looked at it and listened and they f**king hated that title and we were not feeling so good about that anymore.”

Full disclosure, when we discussed this very rumor on the MarvelVision podcast, we, uh, loved it? Deadpool & Friend seems like exactly the sort of joke Deadpool would make, downplaying Wolverine in the title in favor of elevating the Merc With a Mouth. Granted, we also speculated that the title Deadpool & Wolverine was because Disney would like to sell movie tickets, and Jackman’s Wolverine gets butts in the seats.

…And that’s pretty much what happened here. Continued Reynolds, “[The original title] went with the trailer we were showing. It was kind of a perfect title for the first piece of materials we had out there. So Shawn Levy, director extraordinaire, friend to both of us… He and I had been sitting in the edit room for months at this point. And we called everybody at Disney and Marvel and said ‘we have to change the f**king title.’ And they were like, ‘no guys, it launches tomorrow. We’ve shipped 9,000 7-foot standees to theaters all over the place that say Deadpool & Friend.’

“But at this point, they’ve done this to us the whole way. Every time we’ve asked, like ‘can we maybe get Wolverine in the movie?’ they’re like, ‘No, you can’t have Wolverine, you’re crazy, we don’t have the rights.’ You had to push them on everything, so we just wouldn’t take no for an answer. We were like, ‘we’re f**king changing the title, I will never call this movie Deadpool & Friend.’ And, they did it.”

Sadly, this is the rare case where the internet made something worse. But it is what it is, and the movie is getting ready to absolutely obliterate the box office. You can check out the hosting segment, below.

YouTube video

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