Deadpool & Wolverine: “No Cocaine” Rule Was Real, And One of the First Jokes They Wrote

Some of the best jokes are rooted in truth, and apparently that is the case for Deadpool & Wolverine, too. In the film (and about half of all the trailers), there was a scene where Blind Al suggested a cocaine binge to Deadpool, and he responded that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige had singled out drugs as the one thing the movie couldn’t get away with. Turns out that’s true — and that the limitation led to the creation of that scene, which director Shawn Levy says was one of the first jokes they wrote for the team-up movie.

Speaking with Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Levy broke down how both the cocaine joke, and the Marvel Jesus joke, came very early in the process.

“This idea of Wade being given an opportunity to level up into the bigs, and the delusional confidence that Wade would have in declaring himself a messiah…that just made us laugh, and felt very Wade Wilson, and so that was early,” Levy said. “That was an early one, and so was naming that the only rule we were given by Feige is no cocaine…which is absolutely a fact. Early on, Kevin was like, ‘Look, we want a fully ‘Deadpool’ Deadpool movie. The only thing maybe is, maybe we don’t do all the drug use, the cocaine use with Al and Wade. And we were like ‘Yes sir, yep, copy that,’ and we went home and literally wrote the joke about Feige requesting no cocaine, and it became one of the first jokes that we wrote.”

In Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen as Paradox, and Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, with the return of Deadpool alums Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Stefan Kapičić as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Rob Delaney as Peter, and Lewis Tan as Shatterstar. Aaron Stanford is returning as Pyro from the X-Men film series, with Jennifer Garner rumored to return as Elektra Natchios. 

Kevin Feige, Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D’Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey and Simon Kinberg serving as executive producers. Deadpool & Wolverine is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy. Deadpool & Wolverine was released exclusively in theaters on July 26th.