‘Deadpool 2’ Director David Leitch Explains Time Travel Approach

For Deadpool 2, director David Leitch took a simple approach to time travel as Josh Brolin’s Cable introduced the tool.

The director, who previously helmed the action-breakout John Wick and Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde, sat down with ComicBook.com for an exclusive interview regarding his approach to the often confusing element of film. As it turns out, he did not want his film to get bogged down by the subject or debate of how time travel really works.

“We tried to make rules just very simple,” Leitch said. “The biggest story was the emotional story between Deadpool and the kid, Deadpool and Vanessa. Time travel always gets you in a problem so we tried to establish some real simple rules: I got one charge to get me here, one charge to get me back. That’s it but, yes, it does open up huge questions.”

The writers of Deadpool 2, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, expressed a similar sentiment when speaking to ComicBook.com in a separate interview.

“Well, our approach was reminiscent of that famous line from Looper where Bruce Willis says, “Time travel’s a b—-. It doesn’t entirely make a lot of sense, but just go with it,” Reese said. “He says that to [his younger self].”

“We didn’t want to dwell too heavily on the time travel element. I know it’s a key plot point in the movie, but to us the movie was more about character and personality and journeys than actual shifting and time travel,” Rhett continued. “They can get messy. And we tried to make it as simple and clean as possible.”

As Leitch points out, there is another way to get around any time travel paradoxes in this particular film. “What’s great about Deadpool is you can always just break the fourth wall and you can excuse it,” Leitch said. “You can look at the audience and say, ‘That’s just lay writing!’”

So, if we were to travel to the future and take a look at Deadpool 3, would it be directed by Leitch? “I would love to,” Leitch said. “Look, it’s like, I would love to play in this world for as long as it would have me. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to play in something that’s so fun, has so many different tones going on. It’s irreverent fun and it’s comedy, it’s hardcore rated R action, but it’s a real dramatic story and has some big themes. Nature versus nurture. Where do you get to make that movie?”

Deadpool 2 is now playing in theaters.