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Reynolds: ‘Deadpool 2’ about kindness (truly)

LOS ANGELES — After being stuck in development for over a decade, “Deadpool” broke box-office records and shattered preconceived notions about what an R-rated superhero movie could do when it debuted in February 2016. Now the foul-mouthed mercenary is back with a sequel that’s gearing up to play in the big leagues — the summer movie season, and it looks like it with be another hit for 20th Century Fox. Industry analysts say the film is tracking to earn at least $130 million in its first weekend in North American theaters.

Star and producer Ryan Reynolds spoke to The Associated Press about what to expect when Deadpool returns to theaters on Friday.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: The first is so wild and jam-packed with everything. Did you hold anything back or save anything thinking that there would be a sequel?

REYNOLDS: Oh my God we put everything out there. We had no pie in the sky notions that we would be guaranteed a sequel after this. But (screenwriters) Rhett (Reese) and Paul (Wernick) and I had been working together for, God, coming on eight years now. We worked on the first script together for years before it even got close to being greenlit and while shooting the first film, we were already coming up with a story for the second one. But at the time it wasn’t something that was a reality; it was just something we loved. I think that at the end of the day the driving force behind “Deadpool” is that there are a great number of people who absolutely love every aspect of it. I think that’s what translates to the audience. There is an authentic joy and love for what we’re doing and we have so much fun doing it and you can’t help but feel that through the screen.

AP: Is there anything that is off-limits for Deadpool?

REYNOLDS: Not really. To make a great rated-R comic book film you’ve definitely got to push the boundaries a little bit and we leave that to the editing process to figure out what we want to keep and what we don’t. Tone is so critical in these movies and at the heart of “Deadpool” is always a very emotional story. You have to circle around that before you think about comedy bits or trying to incite reactions or that sort of thing. So “Deadpool 2” is really, at its core, about how one act of kindness can change the world. It’s sort of a nature versus nurture story at its heart and that’s critical to the film as a whole. Then you can model which sort of comedic set pieces you want around that. But at the end of the day it’s got to be an engrossing story and that’s the thing that we were most focused on from the get-go.

AP: That’s very sweet and sincere! And here I was thinking the most sincere thing about “Deadpool” was the Wikipedia page. Everything else from the logline to the marketing leans into the irreverence of it.

REYNOLDS: Deadpool at his heart is sort of like a child. Like, yeah he can be vulgar, yeah he can act out but at its core there is a certain innocence to other aspects of him and I think that is something that’s really important with the character. He sees the world through the prism of a child’s eyes sometimes and that’s also why he’s tempestuous and obnoxious and misguided so much of the time too.

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