As Deadpool & Wolverine continues to shatter the all-time R-rated box office record and restore faith in the MCU moving forward, it’s worth noting that the playful superhero franchise has seen its share of hits and misses. Look no further than Once Upon a Deadpool, a novelty re-edit of Deadpool 2 that strips away all the R-rated material and replaces it with a PG-13 storybook fairytale molded from The Princess Bride. Although the gimmicky remake has standout moments, most agree it would have worked better as a short film.
With Deadpool & Wolverine poised to clobber its box office competitors for a third consecutive weekend, a closer look at the highs and lows of Once Upon a Deadpool can help to determine what went wrong, how it overstayed its welcome, and why it would have functioned much better as an abbreviated chapter released in between the theatrical feature films. If nothing else, the creative misfire proves that certain comic book characters like Deadpool require hardened, profane material to best suit their popular brand.
3 What Is Once Upon A Deadpool?
Released theatrically on December 24, 2018, Once Upon a Deadpool is a PG-13 re-edit of the R-rated Deadpool 2. Directed by David Leitch from a script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the basic plot beats from Deadpool 2 are retained but given a lighter, fairytale spin. The story begins with Fred Savage lampooning his character, The Grandson, from the quotable 1987 classic The Princess Bride. Instead of his grandfather (Peter Falk) telling him a fairytale about Buttercup, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) sits at The Grandson’s bedside and tells him the story of his battle with Cable (Josh Brolin).
Ryan Reynolds conceived the idea of Once Upon a Deadpool as a playful framing device that would push the meta-interactions with the audience forward. Although new scenes were written and filmed in one day, most of the action is lifted from the original R-rated cut of Deadpool 2, which was released in May 2018. The idea was to invite a new, younger audience unable to watch the R-rated Deadpool movies in theaters and expand the comic book character’s reach. It was also important not to make a kid’s movie and retain the adult subversion Deadpool has built his brand on.
Despite the approach of widening Wade Wilson’s target demographic, Once Upon a Deadpool failed to resonate as strongly as Deadpool and Deadpool 2. The PG-13 redo drew mixed reviews from critics, earning a 56% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 53 Metascore compared to Deadpool (85%, 65 Metascore) and Deadpool 2 (84%, 66 Metascore). Once Upon a Deadpool is the lowest-rated franchise entry on IMDb (7.3), including the two highly entertaining shorts, Deadpool: No Good Deed and Korg and Deadpool.
2 Once Upon a Deadpool Stretches Its Novel Premise Thin
Despite the entertaining novelty of its premise, most critics agree that Once Upon A Novel stretches its gimmick too thin to warrant a feature-length runtime. At 118 minutes, the film is ten minutes longer than the original Deadpool (2016). It’s also one minute shorter than Deadpool 2, which is still too long considering it was meant to shorten the experience by eliminating the R-rated language and graphic violence. Instead, the R-rated material is replaced with forgettable filler that distracts from the entertainment value of a few brief bits.
As a result, the Rotten Tomatoes official consensus reads:
“Once Upon a Deadpool
retains enough of the franchise’s anarchic spirit to entertain, but doesn’t add enough to
Deadpool 2
to justify its own existence.”
One of the final miscalculations for Once Upon a Deadpool was to release the film on Christmas Eve. It would make sense if the movie parodied a Christmas fairytale, but The Princess Bride is not that. The Deadpool movies have evolved into mega summer blockbusters, with Deadpool released in February 2016, Deadpool 2 in May 2018, and Deadpool & Wolverine in July 2024, each increasing their commercial and critical success.
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Had Once Upon a Deadpool been released in the summer months when the PG-13 crowd was home from school, it would have almost certainly fared better at the box office and among critics. As it stands, Once Upon a Deadpool is the least profitable Deadpool movie in the franchise, earning $51 million compared to Deadpool‘s $782 million, Deadpool 2‘s $785 million, and Deadpool & Wolverine‘s billion-dollar moneymaker (via Box Office Mojo).
1 Why Once Upon a Deadpool Would Work Better as a Short Film
Between the thinly worn novelty and misguided release date, Once Upon a Deadpool would have functioned much better as a short film. Had The Princess Bride parody been limited to a tightly edited 4-5 minute short like No Good Dead and Deadpool and Korg, the material would not have worn out its welcome and become stale. It would remain fast, fresh, and highly rewatchable.
Both short films mentioned above boast a higher IMDb rating (8.0 and 7.8, respectively) than Once Upon a Deadpool (7.3), suggesting the latter would fit better as a short-form interstitial entry released between the big-screen features. Story-wise, there was no need to recap previously seen events in Deadpool 2. Instead, if Once Upon a Deadpool limited the story to Deadpool and The Grandson riffing on The Princess Bride in a hilarious 5-minute short, the results would have fared better and enjoyed longer success.
After all, the appeal comes from the nostalgia of watching Fred Savage interact with the irreverently funny Ryan Reynolds, rendering the repeated Deadpool 2 action unnecessary. Beyond the waggish interactions between Savage and Reynolds, another standout moment that could have bolstered the short film version includes the sanitized X-Force parachute jump that finds Deadpool and his allies nearly dying in an aerial mishap. Also, more focus on Savage’s charming Marvel fandom would have highlighted the short film’s best moments. All under consideration, if Once Upon a Deadpool took the approach of No Good Deed and Deadpool and Korg, it would not be the lowest-ranked Deadpool movie on record.
