It's not everyday that Hollywood writers get to write about a character that they truly feel happy about, but this is exactly what happened to writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick when they were given the script for "Deadpool."
During an interview with Screen Rant, the two gushed about their involvement with the movie that stars Ryan Reynolds as the title character.
"Writing for Deadpool is the best. We were given a great gift in this character. He's a lot of things. He's a lunatic. He's a talker. He's a romantic. He's an overgrown child. He's a killer. And he has the capacity to break the traditional storytelling rules," said Reese. "He is very self-aware that he's in a story, that he's in a movie in this case. In the comic book he kinda knows he's in a comic. Here he knows he's in a movie. He can break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience."
As a writer, Reese said that there is nothing more liberating than to write about a character who is free to break as many rules as they can. Through "Deadpool," they were able to poke fun about a Wolverine movie and even laugh about Reynolds himself.
"Those are the kinds of things you would never be afforded the chance to do with any other character other than this character. So it's been wonderful," added Reese.
As for Wernick, he appreciates the complex nature of Deadpool being an anti-hero.
"He's a broken soul. He's not kind of the broad-shouldered superhero type that everyone's used to seeing. So that also was freeing. He's self-loathing. And he's got a couple of screws loose in his head. They say write what you know, right? So we really tapped into that in a fun way," he said.
The two agree that "Deadpool" is a revenge story, although it can also be considered a romantic comedy or a "love story between two broken souls."
The love story arc is between Deadpool's alter-ego Wade Wilson and Vanessa (also known as Copycat).
"There is good versus evil in it. I mean Deadpool is very much an anti-hero. He's made mistakes. He's got blood on his hands often. He is willing to kill people. So he's not the perfect person. But we juxtaposed him against a guy who is that much worse, just much, much worse. So even though it is a personal story of revenge, it also, I think, is a story about a morally gray guy defeating an evil guy," added Reese.
