Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool" got major exposure on Christmas Day when the film's expansive second trailer debuted on national TV, giving viewers their closest look yet into Merc with a Mouth's movie, due in theaters February 12, 2016 from Fox, which promises to be as hardcore as the character's fans.
With a guy that's always going a mile-a-minute, there was a lot to take away from the preview.
Lo, There Shall Come An Origin!
Marvel Studios may say they are out of the superhero-origin-movie business, but 20th Century Fox has made no such promise. As the trailer makes clear, moviegoers will meet regular old Wade Wilson before the experimental cancer cure that cost him his face and granted him powers, and see him along his darkly humorous journey towards spandexed vengeance. The trailer shows that while there looks to be no shortage of time spent with the character having arrived in his costumed identity, the movie will explore how and why he got there, and who he left behind.
He Gets By With A Little Help From His Friends
Sure, Deadpool made his comic book debut as a villain, and the character has always embraced violence too much to ever play a straight "hero," but one thing the trailer made clear is that part of how the film will attempt to win over audiences is through the protagonist's many jocular relationships with the supporting cast. The trailer opens with 'Pool sharing a friendly conversation with a cabbie, features a lot of light comedic riffing between he and T.J. Miller's Weasel, as well as the recently recast Colossus.
Not Astonished by X-Men
"I don't have time for your X-Men bull****, Colossus," Deadpool says in an exchange seen in the red band trailer, which would seem to indicate that the two already know one another.
Related: "Deadpool's" Colossus Actor Was Replaced at the Last Minute; New Photos Released
Will Reynolds' turn in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" be addressed? Or is this a new brick in Fox's budding shared Marvel universe, portending more future on-screen crossovers between characters the studio holds the licences to?
New Powers For Negasonic Teenage Warhead
In the comics, the Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely creation has psychic mutant powers, but the on-screen version played by Brianna Hildebrand seems to have a more physical set of abilities, illustrated when she squares off against a character that had just shrugged off brawny metal X-Man Colossus.
Director Tim Miller explained the changes to the character during a discussion with Empire, saying "We chose her because we wanted a trainee for Colossus in the film and the writers and I just fell in love with her name. It's just so out there and so Deadpool and it was Grant Morrison who named her, so we knew we had to get her in there. And then we thought, well, we're going to need to make her powers fit with who she feels like she is in the movie and so to me it's just like other characters in the Marvel universe, like Nitro, for instance, whose power is to just explode parts of their body. But we did try to do it so that it wasn't just a simple, 'oh, I can explode', she can transfer the force of the explosion down so she can move upwards - she can put it into a punch if she wanted to."
Gina Carano Could Play The Big Bad
We see her pummel Colossus and his X-Men understudy Negasonic Teenage Warhead, could the character played by former Strikeforce fighter Gina Carano prove to be Deadpool's greatest threat in the movie?
Not that he will have a shortage of adversaries, between those responsible for his ill-fated cancer treatment and the hordes of thugs we see him take down. Speaking of which...
There Will Be Blood
One thing is for sure--this movie will be violent. The trailer is soaked in the blood of Deadpool's enemies, played as comic physical comedy. Will the movie be the new standard in super-powered action, or will audiences blanch at the gore?
Rated M For Mature
The trailer leaves no doubt that "Deadpool" will be a very different kind of Marvel comic adaptation, earning its "R" rating not only through the occasional profanity or moment of gore, but to the film's whole perspective. The jokes are ribald, the "hero" breaks the fourth wall, and the music gives the movie a definite adult flavor, setting it apart from the crowded field of costumed comic adventures.
Fans wanted to see a pure version of "Deadpool" hit the big screen, and from the looks of things -- to paraphrase another modern manic genius -- Fox gon' give it to you.
Check out the full 2K Ultra Red Band trailer below, and let us know if you caught anything we missed!
Directed by Tim Miller, "Deadpool" opens February 12.