Deadpool Celebrates China Debut by Dissing Wolverine, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Batman

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) dissed his “boring” superhero colleagues in a video ahead of his [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) dissed his "boring" superhero colleagues in a video ahead of his bringing Once Upon a Deadpool to China, marking the Merc with the Mouth's debut in the Middle Kingdom.

"Yes, I know it's taken a while, but I'm finally coming to China. I heard that all the boring superheroes like Wolverine, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Batman went to the usual spots — the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, a few roast duck restaurants. What a bunch of lemmings," Reynolds, suited up as Deadpool, says in the video shared by Global Times.

"Well, not me. I'm gonna meet the Monkey King, the Pandas in Chengdu, and the Dragon King in his crystal palace undersea. Don't you try to stop me! I'll see you soon, China."

Fox releases Once Upon a Deadpool, the PG-13 version of last summer's Deadpool 2 that parodies The Princess Bride with Reynolds' Deadpool telling a bedtime story to a tucked in and grown-up Fred Savage, in China January 25.

The R-rated Deadpool 2 and its 2016 predecessor were both banned by China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which was adverse to screening the first film because of its graphic violence, nudity and harsh language.

Though China's censorship authorities often work with American studios to create specially-made muted versions of R-rated films to allow them to screen in the country, Deadpool couldn't be neutered without causing plot problems.

The David Leitch-directed Deadpool 2, already slightly toned down from the first film by Tim Miller, side-stepped that issue with the self-aware PG-13 Once Upon a Deadpool, which carries a slightly more family-friendly rating for "intense sequences of violence and action, crude sexual content, language, thematic elements and brief drug material."

In addition to the newly filmed sequences between Reynolds and Savage, Once Upon a Deadpool adds pixelation to the scene where a bottomless Wade Wilson regrows his legs after being torn in two by the mighty Juggernaut; in the R-rated original version of the film, partial nudity is uncovered. It further utilizes cheeky censorship to bleep various uses of the "F-word" that are otherwise prohibited by PG-13s, which typically allow just a single utterance of the word in certain contexts.

Fox previously screened its altered Logan — rated R in the U.S. — in China, where it earned $106 million of its $619 million worldwide haul. X-Men installment Apocalypse earned $121m in China in 2016, topping the $116.5m taken in by predecessor Days of Future Past in 2014; 2011's First Class was not permitted to screen because it involved the Cold War.

Deadpool 2 earned more than $743 million worldwide despite not opening in the world's second-biggest film market.

Once Upon a Deadpool opens in China January 25. In the U.S., Once Upon a Deadpool is now available to own on Blu-ray.

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