‘Deadpool 2’ Writers Reveal the One Pop Culture Reference They Couldn’t Use

Deadpool 2 star, producer and co-writer Ryan Reynolds axed a joke about pro golfer and PGA Championship winner Davis Love III because it was deemed too obscure.

In a commentary track on the Deadpool 2 home release, Reynolds and co-writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese make mention of the never-used joke:

WERNICK: But the pop culture reference we couldn’t get over the plate, that Rhett Reese still bemoans…

REESE: I wanted to do a Davis Love III [joke].

REYNOLDS: You got it into some of the promo stuff, though.

The joke would have come at the expense of schlubby X-Force member Peter (Rob Delaney) and a particular brand of pants.

Speaking to Uproxx, Wernick said the joy of a Deadpool movie is “that every moment doesn’t have to appeal to everyone at every time and every second.”

“I tried to make that argument to Ryan Reynolds over the Davis Love III joke but he just wouldn’t go for it,” Reese said. “He just wouldn’t put that joke in.”

Despite Wernick’s claim that “nine-tenths of people don’t know who David Love III is,” Reese argued the golfer was famous enough to make the gag a hole-in-one.

“[Deadpool] was talking about Peter and says, ‘You’ve done more for Dockers than anyone since Davis Love III,’” Reese said. Upon confirmation Love III is a “really famous golfer,” Reese added, “That’s what I said! But we just put it into a piece of marketing and [Reynolds] said the line and he turns around and yells, ‘Rhett!’”

Reynolds knows the sting of lobbying for a joke only to have it shot down or excised entirely: studio Fox ordered the removal of a joke that took a shot at Disney, who just recently acquired the studio for $71.3 billion.

“I think most filmmakers would say, ‘Find your favorite moment in a movie and cut it out, because that’s what’s going to happen anyway,’” Reynolds told THR. “It was one of my favorite things in the movie, and one of the earliest things I planted my flag on and said ‘I want to keep this joke.’ And then it was one of the first things I was forced to remove.”

Reynolds has yet to reveal the joke.

Deadpool 2 is available to own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD August 21.