Deadpool & Wolverine Editors On Surprising Production Challenges & The Fate Of That Gambit Bonus Scene

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Dean Zimmerman and Shane Reid break down the massive editing process on Deadpool & Wolverine as Wade Wilson entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following years of development, Marvel Studios finally got to bring the iconic Merc with the Mouth into the MCU timeline as Deadpool & Wolverine arrived in the midst of The Multiverse Saga. However, Ryan Reynolds didn"t come empty-handed as Hugh Jackman joined him for the Deadpool threequel as a new version of Wolverine.
With the Deadpool & Wolverine ending, the Phase 5 film serves as the only MCU film to arrive in 2024, but it left a massive impact on the superhero genre. Not only did it become a critical success, but Deadpool & Wolverine emerged as one of the highest-grossing films worldwide of the year and one of the biggest victories for The Multiverse Saga. While time will tell if there will be a Deadpool 4 movie, the MCU is now able to access some of the most beloved characters from the Fox-Marvel era.

Related Every Deadpool Variant In Deadpool & Wolverine Explained As a big installment in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, Deadpool & Wolverine includes several variants of the former hero by the time the end credits roll.
1 As Deadpool & Wolverine is now finally out through home media release and on Digital Download, ScreenRant spoke with Zimmerman and Reid about the massive editing process for the MCU adventure. From all the major Marvel Easter eggs and references in Deadpool & Wolverine to the numerous cameos, the editing duo broke down the process of working with Reynolds and the challenges of working on this film while the Hollywood 2023 strikes were taking place. Reid and Zimmerman also detail why certain elements didn"t make it into the final Deadpool & Wolverine cut and what is next for them.
Dean Zimmerman & Shane Reid On The Deadpool & Wolverine Editing Journey Close ScreenRant: It"s been several months now since this masterpiece came out to the world. Have you been able to see people just digest and take it all in? How are y"all feeling at this point?

Dean Zimmerman: Euphoria, pure euphoria - it"s everything we hoped and wanted it to be. It"s everything that we poured our blood, sweat, and tears into. Shawn [Levy,] Ryan [Reynolds,] me, and Shane, everything that we did was for the fans, for the people that loved this character and this world and just couldn"t be happier. Forget the success of it all, but just that people are actually going back to the movies and enjoying film again.
Shane Reid: You"re so lucky in this business to work with the people that you really respect and have a great time with and push you to be the better versions of yourselves. Then to release it and feel an impact like this, to bring so much joy and such enthusiasm and energy to movie theatres and to just see fans responding, it really has everything that we could want. Going into this film, we would talk about how this film feels bigger than all of us and how thrilling that felt, the responsibility of it, and the care for it and the opportunity. So we"re so happy and thrilled that it is doing what it"s doing.

Dean Zimmerman On How The Hollywood 2023 Strikes Impacted Deadpool & Wolverine "We had a second bite of the apple at a couple of things, which was amazing."

Custom image by Richard Craig I"ve talked to different people who were working on Deadpool & Wolverine, and I just wanted to ask from your point of view how this affected you guys because this film was something that was being made just as Hollywood got into all the strikes last year. When filming was suspended, what were you guys able to do on your end? Were you able to work on the things that had already been shot and completed, or where did you guys all fall into this?

Dean Zimmerman: Yeah, we actually were, it was as many struggles and as many obstacles that we had to overcome just with all the strikes and everything that was happening; we were actually able to edit about an hour"s worth of material during the strike period. It was such a blessing, because we actually were able to recognize and reapproach certain things and make adjustments to what was already done, only to enhance the movie.
We were able to explore different options, add some stuff that we thought was missing, and pick up some stuff that we really wanted. We had a second bite of the apple at a couple of things, which was amazing, but it also led to what else we still needed to shoot - how do we surgically attack all of that and make it work with where we were all seeing the movie was heading? We really [made] the best of the situation that we had, and really, we"re thankful that we"re able to do it. Because I think the film definitely plused itself by having those downtimes and breaks to be able for us to not only cut it but then to watch it and listen to what it was telling us.

Shane Reid & Dean Zimmerman On The Pressure Of Tackling Deadpool & Wolverine "You felt like you were in this group that really valued the story that they were telling."

Custom image by Ollie Bradley What is it like boarding a big Marvel studio project like this? Not only are you dealing with bringing Deadpool into the MCU timeline, but you"re celebrating this era that many of us have probably grown up with in one way or another, through the Fox-Marvel movie era. What is the pressure of taking on being on your first Marvel project that you"re working on? What were the stakes like?

Shane Reid: The stakes are large, but between Marvel, who are both of our first time working with - who were really fantastic and supportive and always really championing the film - and being with writers and filmmakers like Shawn and Ryan, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells and their history with the film, you felt like you were in this group that really valued the story that they were telling, and really valued the characters that they were portraying and valued the audience"s relationship with history and these films. So there"s a lot of pressure, but you were always in it with the right people.
I think if you were in it with the wrong people and you felt like there were these liberties being taken or this lack of respect of the source material, it would probably be a harder road, and it would face more challenges. But because of all the support and because we had so much love for this and the fans, I think the opportunity and the desire of what we wanted to make outweighed what the pressure felt like.
Dean Zimmerman: Having grown up in the business, Fox was a home for me and Shawn for a long time. He had his production deal there, and it was very personal for us and for the creators of all the different Fox-Marvel or Fox-MCU characters, knowing a lot of the people that were in that, especially Hugh and Simon Kinberg, who was the writer and directed one of them. So it wasn"t lost on us, and the only thing we really wanted to do was just pay homage and tribute to this legacy that ended, but then given a rebirth by joining the Marvel and Disney team and can now kind of blossom and flourish. So bittersweet, but definitely, always was with the intention of paying tribute to all the work and the dedication that all the people put into all those movies that were so iconic and like you said, part of all of our lives for a long time.

Deadpool & Wolverine Came With Some Surprising Editing Challenges "We had, as you can imagine, a tsunami; an ocean of takes and ideas, and different jokes to try..."

For people who may not follow film editing and are maybe a casual observer of film, what were some challenges that came up during the process of completing Deadpool & Wolverine that would shock people in your opinion?

Dean Zimmerman: Honestly, it"s the deadline. It was meeting the delivery date. It was a very, very tight post-production schedule. We had, as you can imagine, a tsunami; an ocean of takes and ideas, and different jokes to try and different ways to cut it. So getting through all that material as quickly as we did, as efficiently as we did, it was a huge grind. I"m not going to sugarcoat anything: there [were] zillions of weekends, and the hours that [were] put in were obscene, but at the same time, it was all based in the love for the characters and the love for our fan base. That"s who we did it for, and that"s who we worked and grinded as hard as we could for. It was definitely one of the hardest schedules that I"ve ever worked on, and I"ve worked on a lot of big visual effects movies, but to accomplish what we did in the time that was given to us was near impossibility.
Without the support of Disney and Marvel, especially Kevin Feige, Louis D"Esposito, and Wendy Jacobson, just allowing us to never feel the pressure of a budget - even though we had one, - it was always as long as we were servicing the movie, the resources were there and the drive to make it as best as it could was always the endgame for everyone. It really panned out for the movie, it was the best-case scenario, given the circumstances that we were under. The pressure of that deadline was really intense, and we pulled it off, and thank God we did, and I"m super happy that everyone is enjoying it.

Why That Gambit Bonus Scene Wasn't Part Of Deadpool & Wolverine's Theatrical Cut

Custom image by Ana Nieves I can only imagine you have to make tough decisions about what things to cut and whatnot, especially with all the Marvel cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. One thing that I was very interested in hearing from your perspective was that we saw a Gambit with the classic Marvel Sparkle Circles. What was the decision to leave that out from the theatrical cut in the end and make it more of a little bonus feature, so to speak?

Shane Reid: A rhythm to the end credit sequence that we had [was] the Legacy reel [which] was a really important part of the process. It was something that we built, actually, while we were on strike, and that was a sentiment to come off the film with, and then it was from there, we knew that we had this really wonderful mic-drop-coda with Johnny Storm that was going to close the film out.
I think the Gambit Sparkle Circle feels like a traditional Marvel coda, and I think what these guys were always trying to do was sort of subvert the audience"s expectations in that sense. So we had this wonderful piece and it was in at times and out. This is the brilliance of Ryan and his understanding of marketing and social media and how to use it, so they had other plans for what you could do with that kind of material and how you could put it out there and get the audience"s appetite warmed up for it, but also leave the audience with a Deadpool movie that, through and through, feels like a Deadpool movie and ending it the way it did, just always felt right.

What's Next On The Editing Table After Deadpool & Wolverine

Before I let you guys go, what are you guys working on next and especially for you, Dean, because I know the Stranger Things fans would murder me if I didn"t try to ask a little bit about the process on season 5?

Dean Zimmerman: Stranger Things is in full swing, it is bigger than anyone"s going to ever imagine. Every season I am on that show, I don"t think it can get bigger, and not only always proven wrong. It always just boggles my mind how insanely brilliant the Duffer brothers are [with] coming up with new and crazier ways to do this. Their whole mission is to stick the landing on this final season where, controversially, a lot of people say Game of Thrones did not; they don"t want that, and they won"t settle for anything but perfection. So I can assure you that you will not be disappointed, and I can definitely assure you that you will have about the same amount, maybe a little more, content than we did [in] season 4.
Shane Reid: I have a film, a Saturday Night Live film called Saturday Night, that Jason Reitman directed. That"s about the 90 minutes before the first episode in 1975. So I had that a little bit in tandem at the very end of Deadpool & Wolverine, and just ran right into that. We jammed that out in, on of the talk about accelerated post schedules, I think we did 13 or 14 weeks or something like that. I am hibernating for a little while, and just catching my breath and watching the work do its work.

More About Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) Your browser does not support the video tag. Marvel Studios presents their most significant mistake to date—"Deadpool & Wolverine." A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life. His days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. When his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit-up again with an even more reluctantlier… reluctanter? Reluctantest? He must convince a reluctant Wolverine to—F--k. Synopses are so f-----g stupid.
Check out our other Deadpool & Wolverine interviews:

Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson/Deadpool), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine) & Shawn Levy (Director)
Emma Corrin (Cassandra Nova) & Matthew Macfadyen (Paradox)
Aaron Stanford (Pyro)
Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios President)
Wendy Jacobson (Producer)
Dan Macarin (VFX Supervisor)

Deadpool & Wolverine is now available on Digital Download, as well as on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD.

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150 9.3/10 Deadpool & Wolverine R Action Sci-FiComedySuperhero 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.
Director Shawn Levy Studio(s) Marvel , Maximum Effort Distributor(s) Disney Writers Rhett Reese , Paul Wernick , Shawn Levy , Ryan Reynolds , Zeb Wells , Rob Liefeld , Fabian Nicieza Cast Ryan Reynolds , Hugh Jackman , Emma Corrin , Morena Baccarin , Rob Delaney , Leslie Uggams , Karan Soni , Matthew Macfadyen , Brianna Hildebrand , Shioli Kutsuna , Stefan Kapicic , Lewis Tan , Randal Reeder , Jennifer Garner , Aaron Stanford , Billy Clements , Ollie Palmer , Chris Hemsworth , Rob McElhenney Runtime 127 Minutes Franchise(s) Deadpool , Marvel Cinematic Universe prequel(s) Deadpool , Deadpool 2 Main Genre Action Expand Upcoming MCU Movies