'The Impact Was Real': Deadpool & Wolverine Director On Film's Delay Due To Hollywood Strikes

Last year’s Hollywood strikes might have ended, but they did leave a long-lasting impact, affecting jobs across the US. In May last year, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) led the longest strike, bringing a halt to major studio productions in Hollywood. One such project that also faced delays was Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine. The comic book threequel was one of the many films that Disney delayed in the aftermath of the Hollywood strikes. After months of halt, Deadpool 4 finally wrapped filming in January this year and is now ready for release.

As fans are eagerly waiting for the epic reunion of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Logan, aka Wolverine, director Shawn Levy opened up on how the 2023 strikes affected the film. He also explained that the delay rather helped the cast and crew members work on their parts.

“The impact was real. For me as the director, and the producer, the multi-month pause happened right in the middle of filming. All I could do was edit and review the footage. But it taught me about my movie, and it really revealed what was working and what the movie wanted to be,” Levy said, as quoted by ComicBook.com.

He further explained that the delay due to the Hollywood strikes helped the team focus more on the work, thus leading to improvement in the second half. “That’s not a luxury we ever get in live-action filmmaking,” he added. In another conversation last year, Levy also shared that the production of Deadpool & Wolverine was stalled for several months in July last year before finally resuming around Thanksgiving in November. “We’re happily back at work, and now that we know it’s coming out next summer, we are working our asses off to make the best movie possible, and it’s feeling good,” he told the outlet.

More about Deadpool & Wolverine

The celebrated MCU franchise is expanding with Deadpool & Wolverine, showing the continuation of Wade Wilson’s journey, however, with a new partner this time. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine teaming up with Deadpool has alone made the film the most anticipated among fans.

The film’s trailers show the Marvel heroes coming together amid all the odds to fight against Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova. Besides that, the film is also expected to have a couple of surprising cameos by Elektra, Yukio, Blind AI, Dopinder, and others.

Deadpool & Wolverine is set to release on July 26, 2024.