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Once Upon A Deadpool's $1M opening proves even rereleases can be fun

The third Deadpool release this year removes the swear words and adds Fred Savage. And he's the real star.

Caitlin Petrakovitz Director of audience
Caitlin Petrakovitz studies the Marvel Cinematic Universe like it's a course in school, with an emphasis on the Infinity Saga years. As an audience expert, she rarely writes but when she does it's most certainly about Star Trek, Marvel, DC, Westworld, San Diego Comic-Con and great streaming properties. Or soccer, that's a thing she loves, too.
Caitlin Petrakovitz
4 min read

Yes, that's right: Deadpool is back in theaters for the second time this year, after the sequel came out in May and made almost $735 million worldwide. Comparing that number with the first Deadpool's record-setting $780 millionFox executives apparently felt some money was left on the table. So this holiday season, they added Fred Savage, subtracted the blood and guts, turned Deadpool into a PG-13 Princess Bride "homage" and shoved it out into the world on tiny, shaky, baby legs. Once Upon A Deadpool takes the original movie and re-frames it with Princess Bride storybook sections, where Deadpool reads his story aloud to an adult Fred Savage. It's a bit insane.

Once Upon A Deadpool also manages to be as funny as the original sequel, but it doesn't reinvent anything. It's like a collector's edition release of your favorite content -- worth the money if you love the series or if you don't already own it.

Be warned this piece has spoilers because this is the third release of this film in 2018, so don't blame me for your lack of time-management skills.

Twentieth Century Fox

I already saw Deadpool 2, why should I see this version?

It depends just how much you love Deadpool. Or if you've already seen the Deadpool 2: Super Duper Cut released over the summer. Or how much you love Fred Savage. Or maybe you just want to add to the nearly $1M it has already made since opening on Wednesday.

I'll admit, I'm as surprised as anyone the film stands very easily on its curse-free, bloodless legs. So much so that if you're a fan of Deadpool or Savage, I definitely suggest checking this version out.

Wait, who's Fred Savage again?

Wow, um, well, he was the star of a small show called The Wonder Years and he was the little boy in bed being reading a story in 1987's The Princess Bride. (Which, seriously, is the whole point of the joke here so if you didn't get that, why are you even reading this?)

Truly, Savage steals the film -- he might be the reason to go see it, because it turns out he's not just a pretty babyface returning for the promos. The entire film is reedited around the premise of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) forcing Savage into "unsolicited location enhancement" reading him the story until he lets Savage go, complete with cutaway reaction bits in the bedroom, just like in Princess Bride.

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Fred Savage is the one strapped to the bed, who's face you can see.

Twentieth Century Fox

If you saw the original sequel, you know it took a bit too long to get to the real meat of the story. Originally, CNET's Morgan Little said "a jarring early incident buries the movie in a hole it spends way too long digging itself out of." But when Fox decided to go for a PG-13 rating with the new release, it had to cut out the majority of that ultraviolence, blood and gore, and as a result, it takes way less time to get to the best parts of the story.

Replacing the violence with Savage also gives the re-edit room to make even more meta jokes about things people have been complaining about since the movie dropped in May. 

For example, Savage asks how they could fridge Vanessa; what the hell happened to the rest of Cable's convoluted backstory; and how you can just call out lazy writing to the fourth wall without just fixing it. Savage perfectly poses these questions and others for the audience (even though we really don't get good answers) and his interactions with his kidnapper are great.  

He seems like a good addition. Are there other new scenes? 

Sort of? Like I said above, if you saw the Deadpool 2: Super Duper Cut, there probably aren't too many "big" new scenes for you. The X-Mansion bit makes it in along with the added callback later in the film. Much of the original violence is cut, like the opening, and the Savage bits are the real meat of the additions. 

Did they get rid of TJ Miller?

No, why would you ask such a question? (Plus, that would have required some serious reworking of certain parts.)

Twentieth Century Fox

When is Domino getting a spin-off?

Still such a great question. The answer is no one knows. But we do know Zazie Beetz will be returning in X-Force (eventually) with Josh Brolin as Cable and Reynolds as Deadpool.

Is there any reference to the Fox-Disney deal?

Now that the merger of Fox and Disney is official, we (and the Russo brothers) definitely expect a merging of the Avengers and X-Men *at some point* -- but that point is not now. For now, there are the same references from the original release to Thanos, plus the "Sun's going down big guy" Hulk reference by Deadpool as he's struggling with the Juggernaut. But no new characters, references or anything else to signal Disney is the new overlord of Deadpool.

Any new cameos or post-credits scenes? 

No notable new cameos; yes a couple new post-credits scenes and a Stan Lee tribute, each of which we've broken down for you. 

Are there any Christmas jingles included?

What? Why would there be? Oh, because Deadpool wears a Santa hat in the promo picture above and because ads like the one right below seem to insinuate it'll be a feel-good Christmas tale, especially since a dollar of each ticket purchased will be donated to F*ck Cancer? 

Yeah, no. This is still not a Christmas movie in any way and there are still no Christmas jingles -- unless you count the original references to Frozen's hit song "Let It Go."

2019 movies to geek out over

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Once Upon A Deadpool's post-credits scenes, broken down: There are some new Fred Savage appearances too.

CNET's original Deadpool 2 review: A worthy sequel once it gets to the point.