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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is creating a lot of chaos for Disney. After Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again, and Blade, Thunderbolts and Deadpool 3 are also suffering. Marvel has a big list of Phase 5 projects that were being filmed at once, but most of them have come to a halt.
Captain America: New World Order and Agatha: Coven of Chaos are the only Phase 5 projects that haven’t been affected and continue filming. The scripts for these two were ready way before the WGA strike happened. So they can continue principal photography without any major hassle. But the same cannot be said for Thunderbolts or Ryan Reynolds’ next Deadpool outing.
Thunderbolts and Deadpool 3 suffer the wrath of WGA
As per a report from Deadline, Marvel Studios has halted the Atlanta production prep work of Thunderbolts. It becomes the third project to remain shut, along with Blade and Wonder Man. As mentioned above, Daredevil: Born Again had also stopped filming for a while, but things resumed later, and it is currently under production in New York City.
Thunderbolts, however, could be suffering a major problem if it stays shut because it is on a much tighter schedule. Marvel Studios scheduled it for a July 28, 2024 release. Most of these big-budget MCU movies need somewhere between 12-18 months to be completed.
So, if the production remains halted for another month or two, then Marvel might have to push Thunderbolts from its original release, which could ultimately delay the entire Phase 5 & Phase 6 schedule, including films like Deadpool 3.
Why Deadpool 3 is in a pickle due to WGA
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s Deadpool 3 only started filming recently in the UK. While it hasn’t faced any production halts like the other aforementioned Phase 5 projects, it faces the problem of a lack of improvisation.
The script for Deadpool 3 had been completed by Deadpool 2 writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds. But Reynolds is also known to improvise a lot on the set. In both his Deadpool movies, he shot the scenes that were written, but he also improvised and changed many scenes, shooting multiple versions of them.
Under WGA’s strike guidelines, no additional scripting work can be done on any movie as they can only follow the scripts written before the strike. With Ryan Reynolds himself being one of the writers of the Deadpool threequel, the WGA strike doesn’t give him the liberty to alter any of the previously written scenes, meaning he cannot improvise a lot.
This is a minor problem compared to what other production teams of Marvel are facing. Still, it could hamper the quality of the Deadpool threequel as a film overall. Improvisation on set doesn’t always help. In the past, it worked well for Thor: Ragnarok, but it didn’t work as well for Thor: Love and Thunder.
However, Ryan Reynolds is highly skilled at adding improvised ideas on the spot, and that suits Deadpool’s character. So, this is something that the third Deadpool might miss out on.
Deadpool 3 is scheduled to hit theaters on November 8, 2024, but if both Thunderbolts and Blade get delayed, then Ryan Reynolds’ first MCU outing could get pushed to 2025.
