Do you think Deadpool and Wolverine will appear together for the first time in the upcoming Deadpool and Wolverine movie? This has happened before, and it was done very poorly. Now, it’s time for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where the origin story of the most formidable X-Man, Wolverine, is shown. However, the movie took such a path that fans couldn’t understand what drugs the writers were on while writing this story.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the fourth X-Men movie where the studio was going to focus on individual characters, and it started with Wolverine. But the story of this movie was scattered, and seeing such a poor portrayal of Deadpool, even Ryan Reynolds was annoyed. He was so annoyed that he went back in time to fix it in Deadpool 2. Let’s take a look at the story here, which shows James Howlett’s mutant genes activating when he saw his father die. With his brother James, they both participated in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. Afterwards, they joined Team X, led by Major William Stryker, who was looking for adamantium. Logan, seeing the brutality of the team, leaves and meets Silver Fox, who was manipulating him on Stryker’s instructions. Believing Silver Fox’s death to be true, Logan goes to Stryker, who said he will make him stronger by fusing adamantium into his bones. Logan agrees, but upon discovering Stryker’s true intentions, he escapes. Stryker chases him, and Logan asks his old Team X comrades in Las Vegas about Victor and Stryker. They tell him that Stryker is on his island, which Gambit knows about. Gambit takes Logan to that island where the final showdown happens. Logan freed the other mutants being experimented on there and then fights Deadpool, whom he kills. But then, Stryker shoots him with an adamantium bullet, causing him to lose his memory. This movie, which cost Fox $150 million to make, earned $373 million. Its IMDb rating is 6.5 out of 10, and its Rotten Tomatoes score is 38, making it the third worst X-Men movie. This is something to think about because the top-rated X-Men movie is also about Wolverine.
The initial portrayal of Deadpool in the movie was comic-accurate; he was a member of Team X, a mercenary who undergoes an experiment. But later, the writers got a bit free-minded and gave Deadpool powers from other mutants and sewed his mouth shut, a character known for his talkativeness. This was changed in a post-credits scene where Wade’s mouth was opened, and he was shown shushing the screen by breaking the fourth wall.
According to Stryker, Kayla Silver Fox did not love Logan; she was just using him so that he could convince Logan for the experiment, and then Stryker would release her sister. However, this was changed as Kayla did have persuasion powers, but they did not work on Logan, meaning her feelings for Logan were genuine.
A month before the movie’s release, the camera print of the movie was leaked online. This copy had no watermark, just unfinished visual effects and different fonts in the end credits. By the time the movie was released, it had been downloaded 4.5 million times. A Fox News reporter, Roger Friedman, wrote a bad review after seeing this leaked copy and also mentioned how easy it was to find and download it. His review was immediately removed, and he was fired.
Originally, Deadpool was only supposed to have a cameo in this movie, but when Ryan Reynolds found out that Deadpool was also in the script, he approached the filmmakers immediately. He did not even have to audition for the role, and afterward, the writers expanded his role. However, during the filming of this movie, Ryan was also working on another movie, that is why Scott Adkins appeared in his place. Ryan Reynolds’ close-ups had already been shot, and the rest of the work was done by Scott Adkins. But Deadpool’s creator, Rob Liefeld, was so upset with this portrayal that he wrote a letter to the studio demanding reshoots.
Tyler Mane, who played Sabretooth in the first X-Men movie, wanted to return in this movie, but the filmmakers denied him, saying they wanted a younger actor. Instead, Sabretooth’s role was played by Liev Schreiber, who had initially been considered for the role of Colonel William Stryker. Upon joining the project, he was given a muscle suit so that Liev Schreiber’s Victor Creed could match Hugh Jackman’s Logan. Liev found this muscle suit part very humiliating, after which he requested a chance to gain real muscle. He trained with Hugh Jackman and gained 40 pounds, allowing him to perform many of his stunts himself.
In the movie’s end credits, only three prisoners on Stryker’s Island are credited: Gambit, Cyclops, and Emma Frost, even though Quicksilver, Banshee, Toad, and Sylar were also there. Black Eyed Peas’ singer William is a big fan of the X-Men franchise, where his favorite character is Nightcrawler. That’s why he was given the role of a mutant who has powers similar to Nightcrawler. This role was played by Taylor Kitsch, but this Gambit was not inspired by Marvel 616 but by the Ultimate X-Men version of Gambit, who is also a retired thief with a Cajun accent. Daniel Henney played Agent Zero in the movie. Daniel is actually of South Korean and Irish descent with American nationality, while his character Agent Zero is German. This character is known as Maverick in the comics, where he is portrayed quite differently than in the movie.
In the movie, the elderly couple who give Logan the brown and yellow leather jacket is the same jacket Wolverine is seen wearing in the bar in the first X-Men movie. Wolverine wears a similar brown and yellow jacket in the comics from 1980. The elderly couple’s names were Travis and Heather Hudson, which are civilian names for Guardian and Vindicator, who were leaders of the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight.
There was going to be a series of X-Men Origins movies, where the first X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out, then the studio was planning X-Men Origins: Magneto and X-Men Origins: Professor X, but this plan was ditched, and the story for X-Men Origins: Magneto was used for X-Men: First Class.
The movie’s writer, David Benioff, was leaning towards a darker, more brutal Wolverine story, but Hugh Jackman, who was also a producer of the movie, did not feel the need for an R rating. Therefore, he asked to tone down the script to a PG-13 level. Benioff did so, although some scenes, like Kayla’s death scene showing blood, were challenging to achieve a PG-13 rating. However, the ratings association allowed it because Kayla was not actually dead here. Additionally, David Benioff revealed that this movie’s script is influenced by the 1982 Wolverine, 1991’s Weapon X, and 2001’s Origin, where Benioff said that Origin is his favorite.
The movie’s director, Gavin Hood, describes Wolverine’s inner struggle as the movie’s central theme, where Wolverine is forced to choose between his animalistic and human qualities. A mutant with an incredible healing factor, he feels pain every time he extracts his claws, tearing through his knuckles. Because of his animalistic quality, he sleeps with his eyes open and is always fighting the beast within. Stranger Things’ Hopper, aka David Harbour, auditioned for the role of Blob, but the director told him after seeing his audition that he was worried about him. David asked, ‘Worried about what?’ The director said he was concerned about his health due to his obesity. David was surprised because Blob in the movie is a fat mutant, and if the director thought David was too fat even to play him, that’s something to think about.
For Gavin Hood, working on this film was not very fun. He mentioned that there was a lot of mess in the scripting process, and why wouldn’t there be? Filming began with an unfinished script due to the writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008. Even while the movie was being filmed, there were continuous creative conflicts between him and the studio. It reached such an extent that an executive’s husband had to come to the set to calm the situation. Gavin wanted to give Wolverine PTSD, where Wolverine would constantly feel the trauma from his army days, but the studio denied this, saying the idea was too heavy for a comic book movie.
Although this movie has faced many ups and downs and has received a lot of notoriety, it is an important part of our childhood memories. Be ready for the next article, which is X-Men: First Class.
