'Deadpool 2' Director Reacts to Topping a Star Wars Box Office Weekend

Deadpool 2 topping Solo: A Star Wars Story with their respective opening weekend box office hauls wasn't exactly a surprise to director David Leitch.

Leitch enthusiastically shared his approach to Deadpool 2 while talking to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interviewing, detailing the passion of the cast and crew which he credits for the film's record-setting weekend. "We always approached everything in Deadpool, Ryan and I, we tried to say, 'We can't operate from a place of fear," Leitch said. "We knew we were going to open up near Han Solo, but we knew we also were going to make a... You know, Deadpool was a very special brand. And so, it was like, they're different movies and let's just aggressively go forward and make the best movie possible and who knows."

In its opening weekend, Deadpool 2 raked in over $125 million. Meanwhile, Solo: A Star Wars Story opened one week later to $84 million in its first weekend (via BoxOfficeMojo). While Solo: A Star Wars Story might be an experimental film in the Star Wars universe, dabbling with entries to the franchise outside of the Skywalker trilogy films, it is a Star Wars blockbuster nonetheless. Deadpool 2 proved to be a juggernaut which one of the best known global franchises could compete with.

Part of the success comes from the film not only being a highly enjoyable film but also from the genius marketing campaign by a team of impressive publicists, aided by Ryan Reynolds' involvement. However, the fact that Deadpool 2's Cable actor Josh Brolin also played Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War certainly didn't hurt.

"There were a lot of people that we'd met with and that we were interested in, and it was really just finding the right guy that could play this sort of Clint Eastwood-esque guy from the past who lives in the future," Leitch said. "That's kinda how [Brolin] plays it. He has sort of this gunslinger, man-of-few-words vibe. Josh was perfect for the role. I was always fighting hard to have a great actor. We had talks with Brad and things didn't work out for schedule and time and other projects he wanted to do. We had conversations with other actors that were interested for the same reason."

Leitch was quick to get on board the Brolin train when the actor became a possibility. "When Josh's name got thrown into the hat, I aggressively moved forward to, like, 'Can we figure out how to get him?'" Leitch said. "And then he got to read the script. I think he was working on Avengers at the time when he read it. And he called the next day and we had a conversation, then he talked to Ryan and he talked to Simon. It was pretty quick turn around after he'd read it. I think the material was strong and it was funny, and he responded to it and said, 'Let's do this.'"

The box office success, critical praise, and fan appreciation for Deadpool 2 might be enough to get Leitch back in the directors chair for a third film should it ever come along.

"I would love to," Letich said of directing Deadpool 3. "It's just 'if' and 'when' and all of that. It was such an amazing experience and collaborating with Ryan [Reynolds], Rhett [Reese] and Paul [Wernick] and Simon [Kinberg], Kelly McCormick. It's such a great creative team and such a positive atmosphere and we had so much fun. We worked our ass off, but I would do it all over again, for sure. Count me in."

Do you want to see David Leitch return for Deadpool 3? Share your thoughts in the comment section!

Deadpool 2 is now playing in theaters.