Lawyer Says Mormons Could Sue Fox Over New Deadpool Poster

On the eve of the premiere for Once Upon A Deadpool, a group of Utahns have come forward saying some of the film's promotional material might be too off-the-cuff for their liking. According to Salk Lake City's ABC4, residents of the city are having issues of one Deadpool poster that looks a little too much like a poster of Jesus frequently used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Deadpool poster in question features Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson/Deadpool surrounded by angels as he walks amongst clouds. It's awfully similar to a paint titled "The Second Coming," commissioned by the church in the 1960s and subsequently copyrighted. Coincidentally enough, Once Upon A Deadpool features the "second coming" of Deadpool 2 in a stripped-down PG-13 format.

"It is a jab at the State of Utah and it is a jab at the LDS church," patent attorney Steven Rinehart told ABC4. "The answer as with so many things in law, is it's in the grey area."

Rinehart went on to explain that while there are exceptions involved with copyright law, such as use in educational settings, 20th Century Fox is using the poster's likeness for commercial purposes.

"The commonly cited exceptions are parody, criticism," Rinehart continued. "People commonly say that non-commercial, meaning educational use, is an exception. Because this use is commercial, I would assume the LDS church would have a good claim for copyright infringement if they chose to pursue it, but they are generally reluctant to do that."

Reynolds decided to come back and film more footage for the PG-13 cut after Fox agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.

"Because it's the season of giving, we will also be giving $1 for every ticket sold to F-ck Cancer, which will be renamed Fudge Cancer just for this limited-time ad campaign," Ryan Reynolds recently said. “Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006. I’ve said no since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘Yes’ on two conditions. First, a portion of the proceeds had to go to charity. Second, I wanted to kidnap Fred Savage. The second condition took some explaining…”

Do you think the Church of LDS has a case against Fox? Will you be going out to catch Once Upon A Deadpool this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Once Upon a Deadpool hits theaters on December 12th.