Panic Behind The Scenes Changed Deadpool & Wolverine's Title Just Before It Was Revealed

It may have taken six years to make it happen, but "Deadpool & Wolverine" is finally in theaters. It's been a long journey for the Merc With a Mouth following the release of 2018's "Deadpool 2" but Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Marvel Studios made a big finale to this trilogy that, in the early going, appears to be a real crowd-pleaser. It certainly doesn't hurt that the most popular character from the "X-Men" franchise is right there in the title. However, right up until the last second, the movie was going under a different name — one that might have changed the trajectory of the entire marketing campaign.

Reynolds and Jackman both appeared on a recent episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" as guest hosts, interviewing one another in a funny little late night bit. While Jackman was interviewing Reynolds, he got his friend to tell a story he'd yet to tell anywhere else. "That was not the original title," Reynolds revealed. "It was 'Wolverine & Deadpool,' wasn't it?" Jackman quipped before Reynolds divulged the real story:

"The movie was originally called 'Deadpool & Friend.' I am actually not joking. On the eve of the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl is where we first launched the trailer to Deadpool and, not friend, but Wolverine, it leaked, because of the son of a b****es on the internet. The title leaked. We looked at it, and listened, and they f*****g hated that title, and we were not feeling so good about that anymore. It went with the trailer we were showing. It was kind of a perfect title for the first materials we had out there."

This is pretty surprising given that Wolverine is a main character right alongside Deadpool. Heck, Jackman saved "Deadpool 3" when he called Reynolds to say that he wanted to put the claws back on. So the title, as it exists, seems very fitting.

Given the real-life friendship between these two actors, and the on-screen dynamic between the two characters, "Deadpool & Friend" is a silly title that works as a slight to Wolverine. But, from a marketing perspective, it's not quite as much of a slam dunk, that much is certain. Following the leak, Reynolds and director Shawn Levy knew that a change was needed. The problem? They had to convince Disney to do it at the last possible second. Per Reynolds:

"He and I had been sitting in the edit room for months at this point, and we call everybody at Disney and Marvel and said, 'We have to change the f*****g title.' They were like, 'Guys, it launches tomorrow. We've shipped 9,000, seven-foot standees to theaters all over the place that say Deadpool & Friend.' They had done this to us the whole way. Every time we asked for something. 'Can we maybe get Wolverine in the movie?' They were like, 'You can't have Wolverine. That's crazy.' You had to push them on everything."

The movie was indeed a battle every step of the way. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige rejected Reynolds' original pitch for the sequel, one of many the actor cooked up. This late in the game, Reynolds and Levy weren't prepared to lose this particular battle. "We just wouldn't take no for an answer," Reynolds added. "We were like, 'No. We're f*****g changing the title! I will never call this movie 'Deadpool & Friend!” And they did it."

One imagines those theater standees, if they ever made it to the theaters, will one day be a very valuable collector's item. Even though it seems a fair amount of time and money was wasted on materials utilizing that original title, it's hard to argue against where the chips fell. Audiences are eating it up and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest figures to be one of the biggest hits of 2024. It's just wild that such a big decision was made so hastily.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is in theaters now.