Although the censors let plenty fly in Deadpool & Wolverine, one joke was a bit too personal for the folks at Disney.
After the mega Marvel crossover film dominated theaters in July, the official script on Disney’s FYC website reveals the line that even Ryan Reynolds was too nervous to speak during the press tour.
“F—! What we can’t even afford one more X-Man?” reads the line intended for Reynolds’ Deadpool. “Disney is so cheap. I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c— in my throat.”
Although the majority of the line stayed, the last sentence was changed to: “I got Pinocchio jammed in my ass, and he’s lying like crazy.”
While appearing at September’s Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York, Reynolds explained, “There was only one line in the entire film that they asked me to take out.” Although the crowd was eager to hear the line, Reynolds refused. “No. No. No! And they were right!” he said at the time.
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Blade (Wesley Snipes), Gambit (Channing Tatum), X-23 (Dafne Keen), Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Elektra (Jennifer Garner) in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Shawn Levy Instagram
“As soon as somebody says something like, ‘Ryan, Bob Iger here. Would love it if you’d take that one line out. It’s really going to make our life hard over here.’ As soon as they say that, there’s just something in my brain that goes, ‘Must keep line! Precious!’” added Reynolds. “And then as soon as the fog of war lifts and you have a second thought, it’s like, ‘Of course I can take that out. Can I say something about Pinocchio instead?’ And the answer is yes!”
Director Shawn Levy — who also co-wrote the movie with Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Zab Wells — teased the cut line in August.
“There was only one line in the entire movie that we were asked to change,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We have made a pact, Ryan and I, to go to our grave with that line, but I will say that it was replaced with an equally dirty line of dialogue about Pinocchio shoving his face up Deadpool’s ass and starting to lie like crazy. I was like, ‘Ryan, that’s your replacement line in response to, ‘Can we clean it up?’ That’s Ryan Reynolds for you, audacious to the very edge.
After marking the franchise’s MCU debut following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Deadpool & Wolverine broke multiple box office records with its $1.3 billion worldwide haul, including the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.