In the modern age of superhero movie domination, comic book-accurate portrayals are a basic expectation.
Those expectations werent nearly as prominent back whenX2: X-Men Unitedwas released in 2003.
I asked them, Do you guys want him to have an Australian accent in this?
and they were just like, Absolutely not.
And you might tell that theres pain there.
you could tell that he didnt have a happy family.
The writing team, with Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris, gave Pyro this emotional backstory, Santford recalls.
They do it very elegantly in these small vignettes, and that backstory didnt exist in the comics.
Dougherty and Harris really built that character.
But that was 21 years ago.
At last, the Aussie actor is donning the much-maligned yellow spandex forDeadpool & Wolverine.
More than an homage to a comic run, though, the costume reveals Johns new state of mind.
Hes gone completely mad.
Hes like the Mad King wanting to burn everything.
His face is scarred up from a lifetime of playing with fire and getting too close to it.
Hes got these red goggles that he wears and an almost firefighter-like suit from the apocalypse.
Its an anti-firefighter suit.
Its exciting to go into these enormous practical sets they built.
As weird as it sounds, theres quite a bit of drudgery.
Still, that drudgery never became overwhelming, for which Stanford credits starsRyan ReynoldsandHugh Jackmanand directorShawn Levy.
They were so confident in what they were doing.
They stayed in command of the film, even when improvising.
They all just knew what they were doing, even when they were changing lines and trying things out.
As outrageous as theDeadpool & WolverinePyro might seem, Stanford considers the character consistent fromX2andThe Last Stand.
Thats the character that we move forward from, he says of the John seen in the earlier films.
you might see it mapped on his face.
Its a natural extension of the young Pyro.
They wanted to prove that a comic book film could be taken seriously and deal with weighty themes.
They wanted a superhero film that was grounded in reality.
Deadpoolis many things, he continues, but its not necessarily grounded.
They want you laughing and they want you sobbing.
The tonal balance seems like a difficult tightrope to walk.
Because Deadpool is a lot of fun, thats what the Deadpool movies are.
Deadpool & Wolverine premiers in theaters on July 26.
