Deadpool & Wolverine Characters at Disney
Disney Parks has announced that Deadpool is making his debut as a character the Avengers Campus Marvel lands to celebrate the opening of hard R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine now in theaters. This covers dates & details of the announcement, plus a bunch of photos of the walk-around anti-hero and our commentary. (Updated July 26, 2024.)
According to Disney Parks, Deadpool will appear at Avengers Campus in the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris and in Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. Disney has not yet announced when Deadpool will stop appearing, only that he’ll be out for a limited time.
The announcement was shared alongside photos of Wade Wilson enjoying a “Disney Day” visit to DCA. The photos alone offer some humorous juxtapositions for those familiar with Deadpool. In addition to this, we now have some exciting updates on Deadpool at Disney…
July 26, 2024 Update: For a limited time beginning today, guests may encounter Deadpool and Wolverine at Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure. But wait, there’s more.
Disneyland has also announced “Story Time with Deadpool” in the Hyperion Theater queue area. Showtimes are at 1:40 pm, 2:40 pm, 3:45 pm, and 5:15 pm.
From his favorite cozy reading chair, guests can join Deadpool as he reads from his big book of super special stories. These family-friendly tales delight, charm and inspire in the way only Deadpool can. And keep an eye out for Wolverine who may be dropping by “Story Time with Deadpool.” (Really, these stories are suitable for all ages.)
Also, for a limited time, Deadpool and Wolverine might make appearances in entertainment offerings like “Avengers Assemble!” and “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Dance Off!” in Avengers Campus.
My updated commentary to this news is that “Story Time with Deadpool” is a fantastic idea and has the potential to be absolutely hilarious. Also, having Wolverine appear is awesome–and way more exciting to me than Deadpool. (His costume also looks incredible–like it’s straight out of the movie!)
Honestly, I’m surprised all of this wasn’t part of the initial announcement. “Story Time with Deadpool” has a purpose-built stage and a script, so this has presumably been in the works for months. But it kind of feels like they threw it all together overnight, after realizing this movie was going to be a big deal. Obviously, that’s not what happened…but it still strikes me as a weird move to wait until the last minute to reveal something that’s going to be a fairly big draw. This honestly sounds better than anything at Pixar Fest, and I’m not even a Deadpool fan (see below).
Anyway, here’s a look at the images released by Disney followed by the original commentary:
In terms of commentary, everything I have to say about this is probably going to make me sound an unfun old man yelling at a cloud. Nevertheless, I’m not the biggest Deadpool fan in the world. I’m also very aware that my perspective is the unpopular one, at odds with the $160 million opening weekend tracking for Deadpool & Wolverine.
It’s not like I’m a prude with regard to sex, violence, profanity–we watch a lot of HBO! I thought the first Deadpool was fairly good at the time–it did something different and had a certain novelty. That wore off by the second, which felt like a needless retread–the very thing it was purporting to be skewering. I’ll see the third one at some point, mainly for Wolverine. Logan is one of my favorite super hero movies.
Maybe I just don’t “get” Deadpool, but it strikes me as gratuitous and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, with most of what’s considered subversive or self-aware really being simple shock-value. It’s wink and nod tediousness in the same way as the Wendy’s social media accounts–a surface level script-flipping that gets old quickly because it’s one-note and doesn’t actually have anything to say.
My hope is that Deadpool & Wolverine brings something fresh to the table (rather than a bunch of “we’re now owned by DISNEY!” jokes), and shows more influence from Logan–an actual adult super hero film. That probably cuts to the heart of the issue: I am too old for Deadpool. That I’m simply not the target audience and that not everything needs to be made for me.
I’m sure teenage Tom would’ve been obsessed with Deadpool, much like middle school Tom loved Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and all those Adam Sandler comedies of the 1990s. (I’d like to think that all of those still hold up, but I’ll stick with the happy memories of them being the greatest movies of all-time rather than risking rewatches.)
Even if it ends up being ‘not for me,’ I really hope Deadpool & Wolverine is well-received by fans and provides a needed shot in the arm to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The latest phase hasn’t been all that good, but this could be the movie that turns things around. (On a positive note, I think the trailer for the next Captain America movie looks really promising!)
As for Deadpool coming to the Disney Parks, it doesn’t really bother me. My guess is that there will be some performative pearl grabbing over a character from a hard R-rated movie known for his vulgar language and crude behavior. However, I’d imagine that anyone who made it more than 15 minutes into one of the Deadpool films won’t be offended by this themselves and anyone who didn’t watch the movies doesn’t know enough about the character to have an actual, informed opinion.
Basically, what I’d expect is fans voicing concerns about the Deadpool meet & greet characters on behalf of others. Or because they’re simply looking for things to complain about, and the erosion of morals and Disney values or whatever is one of those topics that some fans seem to rally around. That’s about as tired as a joke from minute 110 of Deadpool 2, though.
My perspective on this is that the character meet & greet should be judged on its own interactions and behavior, and there’s almost certainly not going to be anything about the walk-around Deadpool that’s offensive to the average guest who makes a point of meeting him. It’s not like Deadpool is going to be running around farting on Mickey Mouse or whatever. In actuality, it’ll only be “shocking” to see Deadpool in the parks if you’re familiar with the films…and if you’re familiar with the films, you have no legitimate basis for those concerns.
What most interests me is the kind of interactions and dialogue Deadpool will offer. Will he break the fourth wall, referencing and poking fun at his surroundings in Disneyland? Will he deliver sharp PG-13 lines and needle guests a bit? I wouldn’t be surprised if so–but I also don’t think it’ll be all that much “worse” than the Tremaines, Gaston, Jack Sparrow, or a handful of other characters that have longer leashes on their interactions.
All of those characters are great at knowing their audience and landing jokes that can be a bit more adult and go over the heads of any kids who are present. Deadpool will obviously be toned down as compared to the movie character, but I’d still expect his spirit to be the same. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the Deadpool character, how Disney/Marvel thread the needle on his script, and the degree to which the performer is able to adlib and convey the spirit of this mouthy character. It’ll be a challenge–but could be a lot of fun!
As for how long Deadpool will appear to meet guests at Disneyland and Disneyland Paris remains to be seen. The announcement indicates it’s for a limited-time, which is pretty common.
This isn’t the first time that Disney has added limited-time enhancements to Avengers Campus. To the contrary, this happens with just about every new Marvel series on the Disney+ streaming service. In the last few years, we’ve seen Werewolf by Night (by far the coolest of the bunch!), Nick Fury, Jane Foster as Mighty Thor, Hulk cosplaying as Baymax, Zombie Captain America, various variants of Loki, and others I’m probably forgetting.
This happens because the streaming service and/or studio have marketing budgets, and they spend a portion of that on additions to the theme parks. These function as publicity directly to guests in the park, as well as when photos, video, and other content inevitability goes viral on social media. It’s nothing new or unique to Marvel, either. Disneyland Resort has historically benefited from limited time additions via studio marketing budgets.
It’s always possible that Deadpool will stick around “by guest demand.” After all, he is a very popular character and it sure sounds like this movie is going to make bank at the box office. At minimum, I’d expect Deadpool to be budgeted through Labor Day–but I could see him disappearing and reappearing after a brief hiatus and becoming a permanent fixture of Avengers Campus.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Deadpool at Disney California Adventure or WDSP? What are your thoughts on Deadpool? Excited to see Deadpool & Wolverine, or are these movies not for you? Does it bother you that an R-rated character is coming to the Disney Parks, or do you not care? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
There is a recent video (July 30, 2024) circulating on Twitter of the Deadpool cast member making crude jokes about Grinder (a gay dating app), at DCA. In front of children. This is so incredibly inappropriate and I can’t believe Disney would do this. There are clear boundaries between adult and children, private and public, which Disney shockingly fails to understand. Disney is no longer family friendly and they don’t seem to care. We will not be giving them any more of our family’s money.
The joke is not crude, anyone who does not know what Grindr is will have no basis to be offended. But thanks for demonstrating the unnecessary pearl clutching discussed.
this is a mistake
Agree 100%
I’m so old that I still mainly associate Deadpool with Rob Liefeld’s run on The New Mutants. Is it weird that a character from an R-rated movie is at Disneyland? A little. But the character isn’t ONLY from R-rated movies, and there’s already plenty of other stuff at Disneyland that can corrupt and/or traumatize your younger kids. =)
Those of who attend Comic-Con/Fan Expo events already know that cosplayers who aren’t getting a check or formal training can make a family-safe Deadpool character. So I assume that Disney face-character training can do the same.
While I understand why he’ll be at the Avengers Campus, it would be a lot more fun to set him loose in Fantasy Land. Just as people love photos of Vader on kiddie rides, they would love a duplication of the Deadpool cosplayer I saw at Fan Expo Canada (Toronto) who patiently waited in line with kindergartners for his turn to meet the official Fan Expo Disney Princess cosplayers having a Meet & Greet in the Kids Club. Like many of the kids, he came wearing his fave princess costume (Jasmine) over his Deadpool costume and preened and curtsied for the princesses and the crowd that gathered to photograph him.
I think Deadpool should go to Batuu in a Jedi robe and buy a lightsaber. Sitting in Avengers Campus is the least amount of fun they could have with this.
OK, happy to see they’re doing more! What I really want to see is Dancing Deadpool doing a “Deadpool 2” routine to Celine Dion like they Paris Avengers Campus is getting!
I agree with you Tom and thank you for saying something about “a character from a hard R-rated movie known for his vulgar language and crude behavior. ” This is not what Disney ever was about. This is going way beyond any sense of decency or family fare. I am sure that it would anger the Patriarch, Walt Disney. He should be the standard that all Disney products be measured against. You did good to say something. More should.
While Deadpool’s no Free Guy, this is the short term something extra that Avengers Campus desperately needs to replace the entertainment cancelled. Long term, in addition to another attraction there needs to be a show in the Hyperion and streetmosphere, both scheduled and unscheduled. (That is, the Disney Entertainment-funded Deadpool should be temporarily replacing … something.) Maybe it’s big enough for D23, but I’d like to see some entertainment announcement between now and then for Avengers Campus.
… okay, I’d be amused if he comes in on a tricycle, parodying the Marvel Super Hero Island character entrance. Also, Deadpool having to mime everything might be more fun. Finally, Liefeld might be proven right if there’s enough people who unironically think that’s a Spider-Man costume.
Dear Disneyland employees with the good taste to read Tom’s blog and the inner peace to risk reading a comment section on the internet,
While I appreciate the new show in the Hyperion … line and the highly comic derived Wolverine uniform that makes the Marvel Super Hero Island version look like a parody of a homemade Halloween costume, I said *long* term. That being said, this is an excellent prototype!
Best wishes,
Aaron
This is amazing. Kudos to costuming and to the creative photography. They nailed it. My teen is super pumped for a chance for a meet and greet. Do you think he will “wander” like so many of the Avengers or will have to have a queue like Spidy and Iron Man?
As for rewatch. I recently watched Back to the Future with my 12 year old. He was riveted. That scene at the end with Doc connecting the wire? Still on the edge of my seat as was he. Then we made the mistake of watching Back to the Future 2 the next night…OMG! A nightmare, had to turn it off after only 15 min. Lesson for later for Megatron.
The costume slaps, so they’re off to a good start. I’m wondering where this will fall in the spectrum of face characters. Will the character actor be using his own voice or canned Ryan Reynolds phrases? Hopefully not silent, that would just be wrong on so many levels. If done right, it could be interesting to watch the crowd interactions- just the double takes alone by people clocking a hard-R character in the parks, even if he doesn’t actually act that way in person, could be hilarious!
Ok, but DLR entertainment costuming popped off with this one. That costume looks impeccable.
It really does look perfect, doesn’t it?!
For what it’s worth I think Billy Madison still holds up!
my son would flip his shit if Deadpool was at wdw! I wish he was. I know he’s not for everyone but i find Deadpool very funny and I love Ryan Reynolds. he brings the character to life. I wonder how the character actors will channel Deadpool energy in the meet and greets.
I also love Ryan Reynolds! I really wanted to love Deadpool, and am still hoping for the best with Deadpool & Wolverine.
(Honestly, Deadpool is probably his best role, regardless. As much as I like the guy, he doesn’t exactly have a great filmography. Lots of really bad movies in there.)
agree. lots of bad movies but I don’t think it’s all because of him. I think he’s a fine actor in more ways than one. he was great in free guy. I wish this was coming to wdw! looking forward to the new movie but have to wait til it’s on streaming. no movie theaters near by for over an hour.
I’m much older than you Tom, but I still enjoy the Deadpool movies and found them entertaining. To be fair, I’ll admit I’m not a tough movie critic and will let a lot of things slide if I find a movie entertaining overall or if I really enjoy a character. I truly loved the film Logan, a totally different type of hero movie, and enjoy the Wolverine character in general. Hugh Jackman has done an amazing job portraying this character over the years IMHO and is a favotite actor of mine. I’ve also been a fan of Ryan Reynolds for many years before Deadpool came along despite the Green Lantern movie flopping. I do agree with some of what you said about the sequel, but, although not as much as the first movie, I still did find it entertaining and did enjoy it anyway. I’m hoping the presence of Wolverine and the multiverse aspect will give the third film some improvement over the second.
Naturally one would expect that the Deadpool character would tone down his characters behavior at any Disney meet and greets and take into account the many young children are in the parks. Not really a big fan of meet and greets personally, but I understand the appeal for some. I do enjoy getting the odd photo with characters at Disney parks but won’t go out of my way to get one. Not worth standing in long lines waiting during my park time. My last meet and greet photo was with Mike Wakowski from Monsters Inc at Disneyland and before that with Goofy at WDW Hollywood Studios. Great souvenirs and I’m glad we stopped to get them, but it wasnt planned, we happened upon them by chance and there was next to no line at all both times.
We are traveling soon to WDW resort and I wish there was a Marvel/Avengers Academy/Campus, whatever it’s called, at Walt Disney World. I have not been to Disneyland in many years and will have to go back there to check it out.
Thanks for the article and sharing your information and views Tom. Definitely don’t go back and watch Ace Ventura again. Be careful which old movies you loved that you decide to share with your daughter when she’s older. Many times when my children were growing up I made the mistake of suggesting they watch a fantastic old movie from my youth that I loved with me, only to find that it actually wasn’t as fantastic as I thought it was the first time around and my kids were not impressed after my big build up. I was more careful after the first few snafus on that front. Time has changed overall movie quality and time changes our perspectives.
“Many times when my children were growing up I made the mistake of suggesting they watch a fantastic old movie from my youth that I loved with me, only to find that it actually wasn’t as fantastic as I thought it was the first time around and my kids were not impressed after my big build up.”
I’ve already experienced the same thing with action movies from the late 1980s and 90s that I loved as a kid. As it turns out, Stallone and Van Damme actually made a lot of really bad movies. On the other hand, Terminator 2 and True Lies absolutely hold up. So does Speed (for what it is). Gonna find out soon whether Twister does.
But yeah, I assumed it’s a similar story with animated movies. Although I think most of the Disney Renaissance stuff from the 1990s is still excellent and will be in another few years.
True Lies is so good. I rewatched Twister recently before seeing the new one and I couldn’t believe how bad I thought it was today.
I’m with you, Med. I am starting to be pushing 70 (was born a few weeks before DL opened), am a retired former “little old lady librarian” and I loved both of the Deadpool movies, despite my Millennia Offspring’s intial concern that “Mother will be shocked.” I liked them so much that I started reading the comics, which are even more “noir” in their humor and sociopolitical satire.
Reynold’s acting is a huge part of what I enjoyed about the movies, though the anti-hero aspects of the character (in the comics and the films) are part of the fun for me. I thought Reynolds did a good job of bringing a sense of childish innocence and anarchy to the role that is *very much* also part of the comics, while generally staying true to the comics version with (actually) less hyperviolence.
To me, Deadpool is an absolutely classic anti-hero: In the first film, he says right away that he is “not a hero, just a bad guy who takes out worse bad guys.” Except, as we learn, he’s not even really a bad guy at all, he’s just willing to do the dirty work of taking out real criminals and predators that society sometimes tolerates and occasionallyeven protects. To me Deadpool is kinda like the guy who takes out your trash or the cleaning person who cleans up the cat vomit. Or people in active combat duty.
I *was* mildly surprised that Disney chose to bring the character as a meet and greet and can only assume that the character will be wildly toned down à la the PG14 version of Deadpool. I don’t see how most voice actors would be able to replicate Reynold’s distinctive voice characterizations, but that hasn’t stopped Disney before so why would it now? Also, Disneyland did a great job of only presenting “reformed Loki” and not passing Tony Stark as an alcoholic egotist, so I am sure they will not give us the full “Deadpool” experience.
Anyway, my (adult) son and I will be there looking for Deadpool when we make our next DL trip in September and I will be decked out in my tee-shirts and handmade Deadpool jewelry. And, if I can, I will get my picture taken with “Deadpool.”
A brand is a hard thing to manage and much harder to change. I just don’t get the strategy of Deadpool with Disney. It’s just odd.
“Maybe I just don’t “get” Deadpool, but it strikes me as gratuitous and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, with most of what’s considered subversive or self-aware really being simple shock-value.”
Never expected to find a spot on critique of the Deadpool films on this blog but these kinds of surprises are why I keep coming back!
Also trust your instincts and do NOT go back and watch Ace Ventura. To say it is problematic by today’s standards is an understatement :-/
I haven’t even been tempted to rewatch Ace Ventura (or its sequel), as just thinking about it and looking at the poster makes fairly obvious that it was never any good.
The Adam Sandler comedies, by contrast, are at least tempting. After all, he also gave us Uncut Gems! 😉
One I couldn’t believe was Spaceballs. I remember thinking it was so funny as a kid and my husband and I tried to watch it recently and shut it off after half an hour went by and neither of us had laughed even once lol