Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool is coming back to theaters in ‘Once Upon a Deadpool’, a PG-13 edit of ‘Deadpool 2’ which was originally released in May of this year. According to the new trailer, ‘Once Upon a Deadpool’ is “safe for grammas” and “teens.” It was actually that latter demographic that prompted 20th Century Fox to edit ‘Deadpool’ down so that parents of teens could take their kids to see it. Considering that teens make up a huge portion of the fanbase for superhero movies in general, it makes sense for Fox to make its ‘Deadpool’ franchise a little more friendly for them. ‘Deadpool 2’ made $734.2 million at the box office, during its original theatrical run.
In new footage shot just for ‘Once Upon a Deadpool’, Reynold’s Wade Wilson kidnaps former child star Fred Savage “so I can read you the story of Deadpool 2 filtered through the prism of childlike innocence.” This framing sequence is an homage to Savage’s film ‘The Princess Bride’ which he made as a child. In that movie, his character stays home from school because he is sick and his grandfather played by Peter Falk reads him the story of ‘The Princess Bride’.
This isn’t just a cash-grab on Fox’s part. In keeping with the Season of Giving, a portion of ticket sales will go to cancer research, according to Reynolds:
“Because it’s the season of giving, we will also be giving $1 for every ticket sold to F-ck Cancer, which will be renamed Fudge Cancer just for this limited-time ad campaign. Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006. I’ve said no since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘Yes’ on two conditions. First, a portion of the proceeds had to go to charity. Second, I wanted to kidnap Fred Savage. The second condition took some explaining…”
‘Once Upon a Deadpool’ arrives in theaters on December 12, 2018.
