What impact will the strike on Deadpool and Wolverine have on the ban on ad-libs? We asked the director | THE RIVER

Deadpool & Wolverine, the R-rated, irresponsible hero Deadpool's forbidden entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), began filming in 2023. In the middle of the film, a large-scale strike occurred in Hollywood, and lead actor Ryan Reynolds was banned from ad-lib acting, which is one of the best parts of the series.

This was because the writers had to stick to the script during the strike due to the contract they had with the studio. In the Deadpool series, it was common for Reynolds to improvise on the spot, which was a part of the film's appeal. It must have been very difficult to film during the writers' strike.

THE RIVER interviewed the director of this film, Shawn Levy, in Korea and asked him about the situation at the time when he was not able to ad-lib. To his relief, it seems that the ban on ad-lib did not have many negative effects.

“While we were writing the script[with Reynolds]we talked a lot about the possibility of a writers' strike coming up. Every day, we would write, rewrite, rewrite, and repeat that process all day long. And we came up with a draft that was full of our best ideas, and finished it just before the strike started.”

The first strike of the 2023 strike was the writers' strike. During this period, filming continued, but as mentioned above, changes to the script were not allowed, so improvisation was suppressed.

“This is the third time I've worked with Ryan. Basically, the whole process of writing the script together was improvisational,” Levy said. “Just acting out what was written in the script was like improvising. We made each other laugh with jokes that we had written in the script.” It seems that the script itself was a hilarious one that didn't require any improvisation.

Shortly after, an actors' strike began, and actors were banned from acting, forcing filming to stop. The strike finally ended in November.

“After the writers' and actors' strikes ended, we had a lot of freedom,” Levy recalls. “From then on, we added ideas that came to us during filming in addition to what was written in the script. Ryan improvised, and I gave him new lines that I thought of behind the camera. That's how new ideas kept coming in.”

Even in the first 40 minutes of the film, which was shown to the media, there were countless hilarious scenes. The screening room was filled with laughter. According to the director in another interview, there may be some parts where the dialogue cannot be heard because of the audience's laughter.

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” which is sure to be as hilarious as ever, will be released worldwide on July 24, 2024.