Editors Reveal Secrets of 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

Moviefone speaks with Dean Zimmerman and Shane Reid about 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. "At one point we had Ben Affleck coming back as Daredevil," Dean said.

(L to R) Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.

Currently in theaters and breaking box office records is the third installment of the ‘Deadpool’ franchise, and the first to take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, entitled ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’.

The new film was directed by Shawn Levy (‘Free Guy’) and stars Ryan Reynolds (‘Deadpool 2’) and Hugh Jackman (‘The Wolverine’), once again as Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively, as well as Emma Corrin (‘The Crown’) as Cassandra Nova, Matthew Macfadyen (‘Succession’) as Mr. Paradox, and reprising their roles from non-MCU movies are Dafne Keen (‘Logan’) as X-23, Jennifer Garner as Elektra (‘Daredevil’), Chris Evans as Johnny Storm (‘Fantastic Four’), Channing Tatum as Gambit (a character whose film was never made) and Wesley Snipes as Blade (‘Blade: Trinity’).

Related Article: Matthew Macfadyen Talks 'Deadpool & Wolverine' and Playing Mr. Paradox

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking exclusively with editors Shane Reid (‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’) and Emmy-winner Dean Zimmerman (‘Stranger Things’) about their work on ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’, working with Shawn Levy, how they got involved in the project, making an MCU movie, creating a love letter to the Marvel Fox movies, the addition of pre-MCU characters like Blade and Elektra, Madonna’s editorial note, and cutting the Void and van fight sequences.

SPOILER ALERT!!! Major spoilers for ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ below. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!

Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Director Shawn Levy on the set of Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'.

Moviefone: To begin with, Dean, you’ve worked with director Shawn Levy for a long time. What was your reaction when you heard that not only would you be working on a ‘Deadpool’ movie, but that Hugh Jackman was returning as Wolverine and that the film would take place in the MCU?

Dean Zimmerman: Here's the ironic thing about this whole thing. The movie was dead. Ryan couldn't crack the script. Shawn was attached, obviously, they were trying to come up with an idea. It wasn't working. I was literally in the Hamptons cutting in a house that we were renting. He had a meeting with Kevin Feige and Louis D'Esposito at 2pm that day. We were literally cutting in the morning. He gets a call at 11am from Ryan Reynolds and says, "Hugh Jackman just called me and wants in." Like that morning! So, the meeting was going to be, "Guys, we're passing. We can't crack it. We're done. We're not going to do the movie. We'll come back to it later in time." To, “We've got Hugh Jackman on board who's going to put on the suit and be Wolverine. Does that work for you guys?” That’s literally how the meeting went. It was the craziest. It happened instantaneous, literally the moment Hugh said he was in. It was like someone lit a candle on a rocket. We were shooting within months of that. That's how fast it all came together. The script essentially wrote itself. The fact that I was going to be doing this was ... because there was such a lead up to doing this. It was like, "Oh, wait. We're not going to do it." So, the letdown was just dreadful and cutting with Shawn on this other thing, I was like, "Such a bummer. What are we going to do next?" The fact that that happened that day, the day I'll never forget the rest of my life. I'll always remember where I was and exactly what I was doing when that call came in. Obviously, it's changed all of us. I got to meet Shane, which is now, he's a lifelong brother and partner now. There are so many great things that happened, but at the end of the day, we told a great story, and we made a great movie. It's what Shawn and I have been doing for 22-years and we're going to continue to keep doing so.

Director Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman on the set of Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'.

MF: Shane, how did you get involved with this project and teaming up with Shawn and Dean?

Shane Reid: I hit the lottery in life, and I met Blake Lively doing a music video with her that she directed for Taylor Swift. She was a very fast friend and a fast creative partner, a wonderful person, and so generous. I got so lucky because Ryan and her are so involved in the work that they do with each other that I just got through proximity to get to know Ryan. I'd be cutting that video and then Ryan would be sending me a text message, like, "You're the nicest guy in the world and I can't believe what you’re doing. This was so awesome and she's so happy." It was like you're all of a sudden involved in this relationship with the two of them and they're such creative supporters of each other that when Ryan announced ‘Deadpool’ was going to happen, I was just like, "This is insane, but I'm going to ask Blake if she feels like there's any position that I could have on this movie and if there isn't, I get it." It's a big ask. I started talking to her and it was a little almost quiet for a minute. Then I didn't realize that she was selling me through to Shawn and selling me through to Ryan and just really telling these guys, "This guy's special. He is right up the alley of the creative collaboration that you and Dean and Ryan have assembled and is going to fit in with that and is going to bring you some ideas." She was just such an unbelievable force in that way. So, I took a meeting with Shawn, took meetings with Dean and I think there was a little bit of a like, "Let's just see how this goes." I would say that the toughest thing for me going into the film and still the toughest thing to the end of it was that Dean and Shawn have this couple decade long relationship. When I first saw them on set together, I was like, "Oh, my god. These guys feel like they're godfather and godson or something. They're so tight and close and how do I possibly enter that and be respectful, additive, and someone who doesn't become obtrusive or in their way?" Also, because I have a relationship with Ryan, how do I not show him stuff and respect Shawn’s position? It was a dance that was difficult, at first. They were so welcoming and warm and very much like, "Hey, man, you fly, and you do your thing, and we'll see where this all fits." It was just my luck that it all worked so well, and that Dean was such a generous person and Shawn a generous person and also people that expected a high threshold of turnaround and talent. I feel very fortunate to have met the requirements and now we're all like a group of brothers.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'.

MF: Dean, you spent a large part of your career working on the 20th Century Fox lot editing movies for that studio. ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is very much a love letter to that company and particularly the Marvel movies that they made. Given that, how did it feel to work on this movie, and can you talk about the Fox outtakes sizzle reel that plays during the end credits?

DZ: So that was an idea that was spawned by Ryan. He wanted to do a love letter to Fox to thank them for all the opportunities that they gave him. Shane cut that. It was kind of all hands-on deck at 21 Laps. Shawn’s company sent us a zillion YouTube clips of behind-the-scenes footage, and poor Shane poured through hours and hours of footage to make this legacy reel. We had a song that we wanted to use, the Green Day song. So that was all done, but it was all spawned from Ryan's appreciation and love of Fox. But for me, personally, it was the culmination of a legacy that no longer exists. It's kind of a shell of what it used to be. When I saw it, it was very moving and very powerful. I knew even if people didn't understand what was happening, they could appreciate what it was. Right? Which are these years of this iconic studio pushing out some of the biggest titles in the world. To be in the MCU and our first time working at Marvel and Disney, their not only willingness to be open to something like this, but their enthusiasm and support behind it all is really what made the whole experience even more special because it felt like we were going back home. Right? I felt like I was back on the Fox lot because they really embraced the same qualities and uniqueness that existed at Fox for so many of my early years. So, it was great, and it was fun. I hope for a long career at Marvel. I love them. I think they're great. Again, the support they gave us on not only just that part of it, but the whole movie in general is what made this thing so special and unique.

The cast of 'Deadpool & Wolverine' at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Photo: Marvel Studios.

MF: Okay, let’s talk spoilers! Shane, what was it like editing the scenes with pre-MCU actors and characters, and which one surprised you the most and was your favorite?

SR: It's hard to say which one is my favorite. They're all so my favorite, but I think one of the things that Dean and I have not really talked about is what we all did with Chris Evans coming out as Cap, and then turning it into Johnny Storm, which was always one of our favorite surprises. In the boards, we had a little bit of an idea of how that sequence would end with Pyro (Aaron Stanford) extinguishing his flame, but we all built him hitting the tower and falling in post. It was a collaboration between the four of us and our pre-viz team and our visual effects team where we were like, there's this tower just sitting here and there's such a funny way to utilize it. So, it became about how do we have one of the biggest characters in movies, but completely flip the script on who he is and what the expectation of that character is by bringing back this other character and then just humiliating him in a very Deadpool way and leaving him as this broken person on the floor that they go, "We don't even know who that dude was." It was such a microcosm of what it's like to be in a ‘Deadpool’ movie and how the characters are treated differently. I think it's my favorite because Chris was so fun and funny. I think I was saying to people who love Chris as Cap, which there are quite a few, and he has had all these great sequences where he's very serious and quite earnest, but now they get to add to their lexicon, a moment where he is having fun and in on the joke with everybody. So, we constructed that scene. I had found a YouTube videos of a drunk woman on her husband's shoulders at a wedding who fell off and she sort of scorpions on the ground, and it was so brutal. We're like, "Let's do this to him at the end." So, we built that from pre-vis, we would record a bunch of scripts on top of it, all the way to finishing it through in visual effects. So, that might be my favorite of all of them.

Channing Tatum as Gambit in 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Photo: Marvel Studios.

MF: Dean, which surprise appearance was your favorite?

DZ: I will say Gambit, Channing's character. Just because I really hadn't known much of him, but that character I loved every second, every word it was amazing. The fact that Ryan just can't understand him is I just thought brilliant and the casting was amazing. Channing just killed it. It was great.

Wesley Snipes in 1998's 'Blade'. Photo: New Line Cinema.

MF: Dean, what was it like seeing Wesley Snipes return as Blade and have a chance to shape his performance?

DZ: It was as rewarding as anything could be because obviously his movies I was watching as a kid, right? Now being able to cut something that he would be in was awesome. Just the presence and the power of his character. By the way, he's such a sweetheart. In real life, you're meeting your heroes. These are the guys, and you know how sometimes people are like, "You don't want to meet your heroes because sometimes they're not who you expect them to be." You just can't say that to anyone in this crew. There are actors I work with and I'm like, "Oh, man. What a bummer. They're not who I was expecting them to be." But then there's the ones that you're just like, "Oh, my god." Every single person on this cast was just the most beautiful soul. They were all just there for the right reasons and they gave 110%. Everyone on that crew did. It was spectacular. I mean, it was one for the record books, for sure.

Jennifer Garner attends 'The Adam Project' World Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on February 28, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Netflix.

MF: Dean, was Jennifer Garner’s appearance as Elektra a result of you, Shawn and Ryan working with her on ‘The Adam Project’?

DZ: No. I think it was just kind of bringing in these legacy people. At one point we had Jen and Ben Affleck coming back as Daredevil. Obviously, there was some stuff. But it was funnier to just have the one and then joke about it, you know what I mean? So that kind of worked out that way and I think the relationship with Jen on ‘The Adam Project ‘pushed the cards to her side a little bit more, but either way it would've worked perfectly. But no, it was also just to have another female badass character come back and who better than Electra, like come on!

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios.

(L to R) Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.

MF: Dean, Ryan Reynolds said during the press tour that he and Shawn had to meet with Madonna to get the rights to use ‘Like A Prayer’ in the movie. He also said that during that meeting, Madonna had a note about that scene that was eventually implemented. Can you reveal which scene that was and what was her suggestion?

DZ: The editorial note that she wanted to do was I think a tonal note, but I think that came off what was recorded. So, we were always going to do an orchestra accompaniment with ‘Like a Prayer’ and we did it. We recorded it in London. What her big note was, was that it wasn't “urban enough”. It sounded like a group of 50 white British men and women singing and she wanted it more “urban”. She wanted a robust gospel choir and more soul. So, that forced us to re-record in LA with this gospel choir and thank God, she did it. It's just her brilliance and her being around for as long as she has that made this happen and it literally took it to a totally different level. It was a headache to do because we were literally on the final mixing stage doing the mix on the movie, and to do all this stuff last second. Also, (composer) Rob (Simonson) had to write it. So, it was all, again, happening so fast. The whole thing did, the post schedule on this was nothing like I've ever seen as long as I've been doing this, 30 something years. I've never experienced a post schedule this quickly with this many visual effects and the amount of scrutiny and pressure to have this be as a massive hit because the industry was depending on it almost.

MF: Shane, can you talk about cutting the fight sequences in the Void between Wolverine and Sabretooth, and Deadpool and Wolverine?

SR: The void fight, it was the first fight sequence I've ever cut. I remember thinking, maybe there's these tricks that I must know. Do I cut frames out? Do I add these speed effects? Like anything, it's just a feeling. It's just a flow and a rhythm. I mean, I will say that the choreography by our stunt choreographer and just Hugh Jackman, my God, the faces he would make, the performance that he gave. I think what it did was it effectively gave audience members a fight that they feel like they're sometimes missing. It gave character performance and personality to a fight sequence, and it kept it really grounded. Everything that we did from the van fight and the Void fight with Sabretooth were very grounded experiences in real world locations with props that were real. I think it's what allows people to connect a little bit more to the physicality of the film and the characters and make them feel more human. One of the things that I keep saying from the trailer, when we first did one of the trailers where Deadpool unloads all the bullets in Wolverine's rib cage. I was thinking, "I think that we are underestimating how powerful these visuals are." When have we ever seen a character in any movie that's a human being take a rib cage full of bullets in a trailer or anything? It was one of the things I thought was most exciting going into this movie is that you have that ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’, ‘48 Hrs.’, ‘Rush Hour’ tension that exists between two characters you want to see grow, but now you've weaponized them and they're indestructible and they can take out that frustration physically. I think that's the first time an audience has ever gotten to experience that take on it.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.

MF: Finally, Dean, what was it like cutting the incredible fight sequence in the van between Deadpool and Wolverine?

DZ: I mean, that sequence again was choreographed within an inch of its life because of the constraints of what it is, you're fighting in a van! Deadpool couldn't use his katanas, so we had to use the little knife that he had in his chest piece and his baby knife, where Wolverine just had these claws. So, it was always going to be a bloodbath. The biggest challenge was getting that sequence and then finding the right music to go to it. We obviously knew we were going to do the head against the radio with a full nod to ‘The Greatest Showman’ there. But then where do you go? What do you do? That's where, again, Shane is so great with music. He picked the AC/DC song for the Void fight. I can't remember what we came up with (for the van scene). (Note: It was “You’re the one that I want” from ‘Grease’). It's just one of those things, like, "Let's just put in this." It's like how do you do the contradiction of it? Make it weird and different but keeping it visceral and real. But again, where Shane was saying, having Hugh’s face and the anger and just the pure hatred for this character. Again, this is something that's been built up for so long because in the press they (Ryan and Hugh) pretended they hated each other, even though they were best friends. So, it was literally both these fights were like this long time coming. To see that viscerally on Hugh's face, and again, he went there because he was going through stuff emotionally, in his personal life as well as professionally. The performance he brought is what really made this all not only grounded and real, but just it brought it to the next level where you felt the palpable tension and you felt the hatred and you felt like, "Yeah. They're going to fight, and they want to kill each other." It was great. It was a little bit paint by numbers, but at the same time there were some things that wasn't working, and we had the opportunity and luxury of having a production team very open and receptive to how fast that we work in the cutting room. Getting dailies and cutting them so quickly and showing Shawn and going, "We don't think this works. Can we come up with something else better for this?" Then them just going out and doing it the next day. The other thing that I will say is all these fights, they were shot on location. They weren't on a stage. They weren't on a green screen or a blue screen. It was all out in the real world. That's what makes this so different than a lot of these other sequences because they’re all CG. They drove the car! We trashed the van! All this stuff, we did in real life out in London, which Marvel doesn't do because it's all so secretive. So, it was a real testament to the lengths that they went to give us the support that we wanted to do, which was to make a real film out in the world. Yes, there were some leaks, and we had our trials and tribulations with paparazzi and all that kind of stuff, but we got through it, and it all worked hand in hand, and it made us better. I think what it showed is that we are doing something different and more unique than any other Marvel movie has done. I think that's what audiences are enjoying more than anything, not knowing that that's why it is because we did it for real in real life.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in Marvel Studios' 'Deadpool & 'Wolverine.'

SR: I'll just add one thing onto the van fight that I'm realizing I haven't really commented on that notches up the performance and the joy of that scene, which was such a weird choice by Hugh to just start laughing while Deadpool's on top of him, which is such a character moment of just like, "Come on." Then Ryan had the idea to add some dripping blood onto his cheek and teeth, and it's just such a weird piece of the puzzle that elevates sequences like that from a fight scene to like, "God, I'm getting story and character in a moment that should just be getting punches and kicks and flying around." I think that's the difference in this film is that you feel it everywhere.

What is the plot of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’?

Six years after the events of 'Deadpool 2', Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) lives a quiet life, having left his time as the mercenary Deadpool behind him, until the Time Variance Authority (TVA)—a bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space and monitors the timeline—pulls him into a new mission. With his home universe facing an existential threat, Wilson reluctantly joins an even more reluctant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) on a mission that will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).