Then there was Wade Wilson. Deadpool himself. The Merc With The Mouth. Opening with a slow zoom into its hero, in repose on a leather armchair, a specially shot Comic-Con intro was greeted with general pandemonium. “Let’s take these broken wings and learn to fucking fly again,” said Deadpool, putting a lit pipe into his mouth, only for it to pop out again, what with him wearing a mask and all. "Hell yes!", replied Hall H.
“It’s only been 11 years in the waiting,” grinned Reynolds, the most rapturously received presence in a day that’s featured Quentin Tarantino, Joss Whedon, Tom Hiddleston and Daniel Radcliffe. “One year almost to the day, some asshole leaked that footage,” recalled Reynolds. “You guys, the fans, made this happen. You twisted the studio’s arm behind its back.”
“It was R, then it was PG, then it R again,” remembered director Tim Miller of his movie’s complex route to the screen. “But babies will love this film,” qualified Reynolds. He was joking. Do not take your baby to see Deadpool.
“She’s a 15 year-old superhero in training,” said Briann Hildebrand of her awesomely-named Negasonic Teenage Warhead. “She’s Colossus’ trainee.” Incidentally, Colossus, the metal-skinned hulking brute, is called a “big chrome cockgobbler” at one point in the trailer. It’s that sort of movie: all fourth-wall breaks, bloody ‘n’ balletic kills and joyfully elaborate insults.
And what of the man who wants to hurt our hero? “Ajax runs the workshop that Wade Wilson comes to as a terminally ill, ex-special forces guy,” explained Brit superbad Ed Skrein. “We give him the superpowers that turn him into Deadpool. He’s basically ungrateful.”
“It’s everything that we loved about the comics,” expanded Reynolds. “I think it’s the most faithful adaption of a supersuit from a comic to a film that I’ve ever seen.” Harking back to the character’s disappointing treatment in X-Men: Origins Wolverine, he added: “At no point in the film is his mouth sewn up. He’s the Merc With The Mouth, doing his level best to annoy the living shit out of everyone around him 24/7.”
And with that came a red band trailer that had the entirety of Hall H on its feet chanting, “One more time!” It’ll be online soon so we’ll keep the details light but expect sword-wielding, Wilson wisecracks, all sorts of swears, Stan Lee and a whole mess of awesome. As the kid in the row behind Empire put it: “Best. Trailer. Ever.” Get excited for Deadpool's February 4 release next year.