We’re getting into the final round of trailers for the first batch of summer movies—while STILL waiting on the first trailer for Crazy Rich Asians—and following Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s final trailer is Deadpool 2’s final trailer. I’ll tell you what, I LOVE that Peter gag at the end. That is a GREAT joke. I also like the bit with the katanas and the bullets, a reference to a similar scene in X-Men: Origins – Wolverine, or however the f*ck that was punctuated, the movie where Ryan Reynolds originated Deadpool to no one’s acclaim. That katana move—slicing bullets before they can wound—is exactly the kind of dumb movie logic that says “This makes no sense but looks cool”, but as Deadpool 2 points out, it doesn’t even really look that cool. It makes for a very stupid wide shot. And of course there are the Deadpool-signature fourth-wall-breaking references, calling Cable “Thanos”, as Josh Brolin plays both and no, Lainey, you will not be confused because he is a giant raisin in Infinity War, and a reference to the Dark & Gritty™ DC movie-verse. Those jokes aren’t as good as “Peter”.
And then there’s TJ Miller. The first trailer went light on Miller, but with each successive look at the movie, we’ve seen more and more of him. So not only did Deadpool 2 not recast him, they have doubled down on Miller’s presence in the advertising. Miller is what you might call “embattled”, accused of sexual assault and more recently arrested for calling in a fake bomb threat. I’m sure his presence in the Deadpool franchise will age really well and no one will have any questions about why they didn’t just replace him when they had the chance, especially as they were already doing reshoots. Especially since this movie, more than any other, could have gotten away with some kind of joke about replacing Miller with, say, a talking carrot.
