2024 mega successDeadpool & Wolverinedoesn’t exactly pull its punches, but Shawn Levy revealed that one joke didn’t make the cut after Disney insisted it was cut. The offending joke in question has now been revealed, and it’s not exactly surprising why it didn’t make it into theMCUsequel, even with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s long-awaited team-up coming with an R rating.
Thanks to the now-publicly-available screenplay (viaDisney Debut), we now know exactly what the joke was, and why Disney balked at its inclusion. In the exchange betweenWesley Snipes' Blade(named Billy in the script to hide his identity) and Wade, in which Deadpool learns that Magneto is already dead, his original reaction was set to include an explicit reference to Mickey Mouse:
“We can’t even afford one more X-Man? Disney is so cheap. I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c**k in my throat.”,
Ryan Reynolds previously confirmed that Disney attempted precious little interference, admitting that the joke was probably pushing things a little far:
“There was only one line in the entire film that they asked me to take out. And they were right.”
Clearly, sexualizing Disney’s long-running mascot is one of those golden rules evenDeadpool & Wolverinecouldn’t break. That’s perhaps somethingMarvel’s upcoming MCU moviesshould bear in mind.
Breaking Down Deadpool & Wolverine’s Rejected Mickey Mouse Joke
Why Disney Didn’t Want Anyone To Talk About Mickey’s Penis
Director Shawn Levy actually toldEntertainment Weeklythat he and Ryan Reybolds had vowed they’d never reveal the Mickey Mouse joke, so it’s interesting that the revelation has come from Disney themselves:
“We have made a pact, Ryan and I, to go to our grave with that line, but I will say that it was replaced with an equally dirty line of dialogue about Pinocchio shoving his face up Deadpool’s ass and starting to lie like crazy.”
Reynolds previously also explained what happened with the cut joke, and revealed thatDisney had less of a problem with making a joke about beloved puppet Pinocchio’s phallic nose being inserted into Deadpool’s backside. So there is a definitive line of which characters can be involved in such things and which can’t, apparently. Reynolds has revealed his stubbornness over the line:
“As soon as somebody says something, like, ‘Ryan, Bob Iger here. Would love it if you’d take that one line out. It’s really going to make our life hard over here.’ As soon as they say that, there’s just something in my brain that goes, ‘Must keep line! Precious!’ And then as soon as the fog of war lifts and you have a second thought, it’s like, ‘Of course I can take that out. Can I say something about Pinocchio instead? And the answer is yes!”
The reveal of the censored Mickey Mouse joke marks the end of a surprisingly rich line of discourse forDeadpool & Wolverine, because it played a fairly substantial role in the pre-release marketing campaign. The creative duo also spoke toColliderto reveal that Disney hadn’t actually insisted on the line being removed, but had called it a preference:
“There was a note about this one line, and I’ll say this, which is that I was asked to take the line out. I was not even mandated to take the line out. To quote someone in a very high position of leadership at Disney, ‘I’m in for a penny, I’m in for a pound. And if you take it out, I’d love it. If you don’t, I will still love and support you, this movie and all the hard work that went into it.’ So, come on. At that point you go, ‘Do I want to stick with pride? Do I care? Am I going to die on a hill over one joke?’ Look, the answer is of course I’m going to die on a hill over one joke, but then you sober up a few weeks later.”
Levy then revealed in the same interview how the initially stubborn response made way, and Pinocchio was violated instead:
“Many weeks later. My buddy Ryan is one stubborn son of a bitch. It took weeks for the ground to soften, and we’re going to take that joke to the grave… I’ll say that the joke that was written to replace the changed joke is not only as good a joke, but maybe even smarter. And I wonder if we give away anything about the slot where it existed, Ryan?”The joke they chose to replace it with?“I got Pinocchio jammed in my ass, and he’s lying like crazy.”
Interestingly, the script also reveals that Blade was called Billy in the script, because Shawn Levy drew from his work onStranger Thingsto hide the identity of theDeadpool & Wolverinecameos.Each of the biggest Marvel character was instead named after one of Netflix’s flagship sci-fi’s leads. Blade was Billy, Henry Cavillrine’s Wolverine was Hopper, Elektra was Eleven, and Johnny Storm was Jonathan Byers. Somewhat confusingly, Gambit was known as Gatsby.
Our Take On Deadpool & Wolverine’s Censored Joke
Fair play to Disney, their willingness to allow Ryan Reynolds to include the Mickey Mouse joke if he really needed to shows a certain gameness, but that’s not too surprising in the context of the rest ofDeadpool & Wolverine.The movie takes potshots at the “failing” MCU, has some of the most stunning violence in any Marvel movie, and is provocatively obscene at times. And really, not wanting Mickey Mouse’s good name to be dragged for the sake of a throw-away gag is probably fair. Someone’s got to think of the kids.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Cast
A follow-up to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 films starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
