The superhero movie that pissed-off Seth Rogen: “What the hell are they doing?”
The X-Men franchise can’t receive all of the credit for launching the superhero genre to the heights that it reached towards the end of the 2010s, but it was certainly one of the main catalysts for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take over our screens.
A handful of films with some of the most famous caped-adorned comic book characters came out before the first X-Men film, released in 2000, but 20th Century Fox’s big-budget blockbuster made both audiences and studios think that maybe there’s actually something here.
Each of the three films in the initial trilogy one-upped its predecessor at the box office, ending with a $460million worldwide draw for X-Men: The Last Stand. With this sort of success, it was only a matter of time before the studio started to try and squeeze all the potential profit that the franchise had, firstly with its three-clawed, mutton-chopped lead protagonist: the Wolverine.
X-Men: Origins was released in 2009, with Hugh Jackman returning as his breakthrough character once more. The Australian gave another authentic portrayal of the anti-hero, but he was one of the only highlights in this polarising prequel, with actors like Seth Rogen being left confused by it all.
The title suggested the direction that the film would go in, expectedly exploring Logan’s century-spanning life before ending up at Charles Xavier’s New York estate. It’s a concept that should tick all the boxes for the genre, but the way core elements of the film, particularly how some of the characters were handled, were a little bit bizarre.
Some of the backstory shows how Logan ended up with his metal skeleton, crossing paths with none other than Wade Wilson, better known today as Deadpool. As he does in the more recent eponymous films, Ryan Reynolds plays the potty-mouthed killer. Some tongue-in-cheek moments happen early on, but the direction they take with the character is quite literally the opposite of what he’s meant to be.
Long-time comic book fan Rogen was understandably one of the many audience members who were baffled at the version of Deadpool that we got in X-Men: Origins, expressing his thoughts when speaking to the Los Angeles Times. “When I was watching this last X-Men movie, at the end they sewed up his mouth and I was like, ‘What the hell are they doing?’ Evan [Goldberg, writing partner] and I will still talk about that; we’ll be driving and just say, ‘I can’t believe they sewed up Deadpool’s mouth’.”
He continued on his tirade about Deadpool’s cheekiness is borne of his tongue-lash, “I mean, why would you do that? ‘We’ll take a character known for his wisecracks and saying funny stuff, and we’ll just lose that entire aspect of him’. He’s called the ‘Merc with the Mouth’. I mean, that’s what they call him!”
Rogen’s desire for authenticity of comic book adaptations couldn’t be any clearer with his executive producer credit for Amazon’s flagship show, The Boys. Bizarre in the complete opposite way, the TV show does its best to take the gore-filled, dark-humoured source material to life without pulling any punches, which is most likely why he was glad that Reynolds finally got to play his beloved character the way he’s supposed to be played, proving there’s an audience for the characters who couldn’t care less about saving the day.
