20th Century Fox is officially moving forward with a Deadpool sequel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool 2 has been green-lit and the screenwriters behind the first movie, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, will return. Director Tim Miller has not yet boarded the project.
This move demonstrates Fox's confidence in Deadpool as a brand and indeed the film is now expected to gross $65-70 million this weekend. For comparison, the studio's last superhero film, Fantastic Four, had a disastrous opening of just $25 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Despite the fact that Deadpool is rated R, Fox still anticipates a fairly large turnout.
This is also great news for Ryan Reynolds, who fought to get Deadpool made for about 11 years. Part of the reason Fox finally decided to start up production was because of the overwhelmingly positive response to leaked test footage and it's rumored that Reynolds himself may have been behind that leak.
Keep in mind, though, that just because Fox is moving ahead with Deadpool 2 now doesn't mean they can't change their minds. After all, Fantastic Four 2 was in the works before that movie's premiere, but after the first film bombed, the studio quietly pulled this sequel from the schedule, as we previously reported.
Deadpool opens on Feb. 12, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, Brianna Hildebrand and T.J. Miller. Be sure to stick around until the very end of the credits, as we recently reported that the movie has a fairly significant post-credits scene that may tie the franchise in to the X-Men universe.