'Deadpool' Panel Highlights And Footage Description: Five Things We Learned [Comic-Con 2015]

For years comic book lovers have been clamoring for a Deadpool movie, and earlier this movie it finally started shooting. Today, fans at Comic-Con got a first look at actual footage from the R-rated superhero pic, which stars Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth.

Reynolds also took the Hall H stage to talk about the movie, along with his co-stars Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Ed Skrein, and Gina Carano and director Tim Miller. They revealed new information about the movie, including character details. After the jump, read our Deadpool footage recap and reaction, plus highlights from the panel. 

The Deadpool Comic-Con panel announced itself with a promotional video. "In a world divided by light and dark," the voiceover began. "From the studio that f***ed this up the first time..." Gradually, it faded into a video of Deadpool sitting on a fancy-looking leather couch talking to the audience — and soon trying to light a pipe to smoke through his mask... which doesn't work at all.

Reynolds appeared onstage as the video ended, and immediately established that he knew the crowd he was playing to, greeting Hall H with "Looks like we're ready to make the chimi-f***ing-changas." And now, five things we learned from the Deadpool Comic-Con panel.

"I think it's an absolute miracle that the studio let us make Deadpool, let alone a rated-R Deadpool," remarked Reynolds. Miller admitted it took a bit of a fight to get there, though. "At first it was R, then PG, then R again," he said. "But ultimately, I think they saw that the world is ready for something different."

Speaking about her character Vanessa, Baccarin noted how unusual it is for superhero movies to have "badass" female love interests. "She gives [Deadpool] lip right back, and not necessarily the talking kind," she said. "She's really awesome, a perfect match to his crassness."

Hildebrand described her character as follows: "She is a 15-year-old superhero in training. She's Colossus' trainee. She's gothic, apathetic... she's a strong young superhero who's a female and I love her."

The young actress also admitted that Deadpool was a "dream come true" for her for one very specific reason. "I may or may not have had a huge crush on Ryan Reynolds growing up," she confessed.

Up until now, we've wondered how exactly Ajax and Angel Dust would fit into Deadpool. At the panel, Skrein revealed Deadpool comes to his company looking for salvation when he realizes he's terminally ill.

"We give him the special powers that turn him into Deadpool, and he's very disrespectful and ungrateful," Skrein said. "We're the creators of Deadpool," Carano added. As for her character Angel Dust, Carano claims she has "anger issues."

Reynolds stressed that this Deadpool will have the same spirit as his comic book counterpart. "Well, it's everything that we loved about the comics," he said. "We have a guy that's obviously gonna break the fourth wall, obviously going to say what [he wants]."

Acknowledging his own bias, he continued, "I think this is the most faithful adaptation of a superhero from a comic to a movie I've ever seen. We have here the Merc with a mouth. The mouth is not at any point in the film sewn shut." Or to put it another way, "You have the guy that is doing his best to annoy the living shit out of everyone around him 24/7."

The Deadpool panel also included a footage reel about four minutes long. Below, our detailed footage recap and then our overall reaction.

The footage starts with Wade Wilson in his non-scarred state, curled up with his girlfriend Vanessa. "I love you, Wade Wilson. We can save this," she says. He seems more skeptical. "Sure, the cancer's only in my liver, lungs, prostate, brain..." A doctor warns him, "It's important not to do anything rash."

But the world has other ideas. "What if I told you we can make you better?" a man asks, as we see shots of Wade in a hoodie, going down shady-looking nightclubs and alleys and hallways. The man continues: "You're a fighter. We can give you abilities most men only dream of. Make you a superhero."

Wade responds, "Promise me you can do right by me, so I can do right by someone else." And then, as he's being rolled down a creepy-looking hallway on a gourney, that famous sense of humor emerges. "Just please don't make my supersuit green. Or animated!" he calls.

He's brought into a room where Ajax tells him, "The one thing that never survives this place is a sense of humor." Wade retorts, "We'll see about that, Posh Spice." As Wade leaves, he calls, "You're going to leave me with less angry Rosie O'Donnell?" Angel Dust doesn't seem too happy to be in a room with him either, and punches him in the face. The reel cuts to an exterior shot, where we see a building explode...

And then we're on top of a freeway overpass with Deadpool, this time in his full superhero costume, listening to Salt 'N' Pepa's on a portable radio and drawing a picture of himself. He then drops into a moving car through its sunroof.

What follows is an updated version of the test footage reel that made Deadpool possible in the first place: Deadpool, once inside the car, starts beating up everyone inside. At some point the car flips over onto its side. Other cars close in, and people come out of them with guns pointed at Deadpool, who's still in the car.

The car window opens, and Deadpool holds his hands up through them as if in surrender. "WAIT!" he yells. "You may be wondering why the red suit. That's so bad guys can't see me bleed. This guy's got the right idea," he continues, pointing at a man approaching with a gun. "He wore brown pants."

Deadpool flips himself out of the car and shoots the brown-panted man in the head, yelling "MOTHERF***ER!" At one point he taunts someone else by gyrating and pointing at his crotch... only to get hit by Colossus, who sends him flying into the side of a car.

We get a moment to meet this Colossus, whom Deadpool calls a "big chrome cockgobbler." But his attention seems more taken with Colossus's sidekick, who introduces herself as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. "Negasonic Teenage what the shit?" Deadpool exclaims. "That's the coolest name ever!" He gestures. "Cue the music!"

A fight montage ensues, in which we see Deadpool flipping and slicing and dicing. There are explosions, and a strip club... in which we see Stan Lee (in his cameo roll) announcing, "Give it up for Charity!" There's also a brief shot of what appears to be Vanessa making out with a muscular man, possibly a pre-operation Wade.

We also see Deadpool inside a messy home. "It reeks like old lady parts in here," Deadpool complains. "It sounds like you have a dick in your mouth," she retorts.

The next scene sees a scarred-up Wade sitting across a table from Weasel in what appears to be a bar. "Oh, motherf***er, you are hard to look at," says Weasel. "I look like a testicle with teeth," says Wade. "You look like Freddy Kreuger f***ed a topological map of Utah."

Cut to more action, including some shots of Deadpool battling Ajax with swords. The scene right after that is even better, as Deadpool flips off a car, shooting a man mid-flip. The bullet explodes the man's head, and continues to tear through two other men behind the first one.

Deadpool lands, and sniffs the smoke coming out of his guns. "Ahh," he sighs, "I'm touching myself tonight."

Then it's back to Wade and Ajax at the bar, continuing their conversation. "You are haunting. You look like an avocado had sex with an older avocado," Weasel observes. "Thank you," Wade responds.

This was our first look at real footage from Deadpool, and it's safe to say it delivered. Deadpool basically seems to be to Fox's X-Men franchise what Guardians of the Galaxy was to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a quirky offshoot that's all the better for its willingness to poke fun at itself.

And like Guardians, Deadpool has an emotional component to ground it. The early part of the footage reel actually played like a drama, as we saw Wade faced with terrible options following his terminal diagnosis. His relationship with Vanessa promises to be a highlight of the film.

One big difference is that Deadpool is, as promised, an R-rated movie. The footage involves plenty of inappropriate language and graphic violence. When a man gets shot in the head, we actually see his brains splatter, all bright pink and red.

And while not part of the footage, the cast's panel appearance also went a long way toward selling Deadpool. They clearly felt comfortable with each other and displayed great comedic chemistry, which is exactly what you'd want from a movie that's supposed to be this funny.

Overall, Deadpool looks to be exactly as Reynolds said it would be: a foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-shattering, big-screen adaptation of the Merc we love from the comics. We'll be looking forward to this one when it opens February 12, 2016.