by Su Fang Tham
With principal photography starting barely a year before it landed in theaters, Shawn Levy’s blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” had to navigate two strikes before it would become the 13th highest-grossing movie of all time. Post-production for this densely-choreographed action comedy onlyjust 23 weeks thanks to the efficiency that came from the top, including Levy and his co-writer, producer, and lead actor Ryan Reynolds.
“The beautiful part was the synergy between production, post, prep and writing—they were all intertwined, allowing us to have the most creative, unique, and fun ideas. Everyone was valued and heard, which makes people work even harder. If they can get one greatest idea from every person on the crew, you’re going to have the best results,” picture editor Dean Zimmerman recalled. “There wasn’t a wasted day on this film. I don’t think it could’ve been as good without the speed and volume, and the collaboration and the openness to succeed or fail. Ryan and Shawn have a vision but also allowed the film to tell them what it wants to be,” added fellow editor Shane Reid.
Since the film debuted in summer 2024, it remained in theaters past Halloween and racked up a whopping $1.33 billion worldwide, splitting almost 50-50 between domestic and international audiences (with the United Kingdom and China taking up the top two foreign markets).
“It has something for everybody, but it’s also extremely granular with some of the jokes. Shawn, Ryan, and the writers were very aware that some jokes were for specific people, and that felt inclusive. It’s so fun that everyone has gleaned something different from the movie,” said Reid. “If you make something really great, the industry is not dead. People want to go to the theaters and be entertained,” Zimmerman added.
Excerpts from an interview with the two editors:
CineMontage: The main title sequence has so much going on, but most importantly, it really got the audience fired up.
Zimmerman: That was one of the first things we shot for two-and-a-half weeks on location. We had a portable editing unit and cut live on set to make sure we had everything. It worked very well for the stunt coordinators and George Cottle, our second unit director, the DP George Richmond, and lighting. The original cut was very scripted with choreographed moves, with every credit engraved on an Adamantium bone.
Reid: We’re letting the audience know the tone from the start. The music is very in line with the tone of Deadpool. But the original track didn’t have the energy we wanted. We had to do several camera tricks to make the bones idea work, but it was becoming very digital. So, how do we keep this fun without relying too much on digital effects? We wanted to keep the joy of a very real [practical] action sequence, which is important to Shawn and Ryan. When Deadpool’s hopping around completely out of control, diving and jumping on people and stabbing them, at some point, you stop tracking all the action – he’s just killing everybody. That’s why we put it together like a montage.
CineMontage: How did “Bye Bye Bye” came to be the winning opening theme?
Reid: Shawn and Ryan had a playlist with different genres. Once we got to the boy bands, it all started to make sense—this is the ‘90s throwback that we need, and it clashes so well with the violence. “Bye Bye Bye” won out because it had great rhythmic elements. Dean and I could paint the ultra-violence on top of the very poppy, staccato beats of that song.
Zimmerman: Some of choreo lended itself to those poppy beats. When Deadpool’s slapping one of TVA soldiers with the foot bone, it’s all done to music. Synching up those moves to this song is what really pushed the song over the edge. It had the right emotion and energy to kick off this crazy movie.
CineMontage: How much of the choreography in the stunt viz ended up in the final cut?
Zimmerman: 90%. The stunt viz became our roadmap of what angles and lens we needed. Three weeks before shooting, I worked with George to review the choreography in stunt viz to make sure it all made sense. There were times where the main unit shoot wasn’t as good as the stunt viz. An example was in The Void, when Deadpool turns to the lens and goes, “Get your special sock out, nerds, it’s about to get good.” Then, he flicks up two mag clips into his gun. The original cut didn’t have the dynamism you see in the movie, which was exactly frame-for-frame what Alex did in stunt viz. So, we reshot that because it had to be perfect. Production and post were so intertwined on this film.
CineMontage: There is joke after joke between the intense fighting and Deadpool’s penchant for breaking the fourth wall. Editing this must have been quite different from other projects?
Zimmerman: Deadpool is always being in a mask, which means we can replace dialog at will—that changes how you do everything. Performance and story are our grounding principles: what story are we trying to tell in the scene, what’s the best performance and make it flow? The frequency of the jokes definitely plays a factor: if you do it too many times, it becomes less special. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine gave us some really poignant scenes. There’s the push and pull to allow some breaths and pause, then ramp it up with the kickass action. Everything was edited within an inch of its life to get that perfect timing.
CineMontage: How do you make it look seamless so that no one can tell whether it’s Ryan or his stunt double and fight coordinator, Alex Kyshkovych, behind that suit?
Reid: There’s a physicality to Ryan when he’s in that suit, so we can always tell. It comes down to details like the way he moves his hand. Ryan is so dedicated to this film—he’s in that suit and makeup as much as he physically can be. Alex is there for the big stunt work, wire work, or when he played opposite Ryan when Nicepool was on the screen. Ryan’s also dedicated to the voice and giving Dean and me what we need—he’ll record anything for us at any time.
Zimmerman: When Alex is doing the big stunts, Ryan is there every second behind the camera to advise: “No, I would do it like this. This is how I’d have my hand, how I would my walk, how my hips would move.” It’s more than just the physicality, it’s also little mannerisms, his head tilts, hand movements, etc. The detail he puts into directing Alex is dedication to the craft.
CineMontage: Let’s talk about Deadpool and Wolverine’s savage fight in the Honda Odyssey.
Zimmerman: The challenge was how to make this fight bloody and violent when Deadpool can’t use most of his weapons. He didn’t have guns and his katanas wouldn’t fit in there, so he only had the baby knives. We ended up with “You’re the One that I Want” because it was the perfect juxtaposition against that bloody violence. Once we landed on that song, it kind of cut itself. It was incredible because they did it live – it wasn’t CG. When Deadpool gets kicked out of the roof, it was Alex up there, it was all practical. That’s what distinguishes this movie – a lot of it is grounded in reality, which makes it more engaging.
Reid: It’s also in the writing and Shawn’s comedic chops as a director. There’s character work in the fight scenes—you learn what frustrates Wolverine.
CineMontage: How do you show character through action choreography?
Zimmerman: When Hugh started laughing because Wolverine’s like, ‘Now you’ve really pissed me off, and you’re gonna get it,’ Ryan suggested we should drip blood into Hugh’s face and mouth while he’s on top of him and laughing. This psychotic, demonic, raw anger came out as laughter because Wolverine knows he can’t die. Those are the character beats. When you slam a blubbering idiot with this very intense, rage ball together, this is what you get. Hugh and Ryan nailed it. The rage that Hugh brought to this character—he’s an incredible actor.
CineMontage: The Deadpool Corps sequence was shot in four sections and cut to look like a oner through the bus and onto the street. What was it like to cut that sequence?
Reid: That was a tricky sequence that’s always been in Ryan’s head with the “Like a Prayer.” The stunt-viz looked amazing. But when we tested it with an audience with a sequence twice that was twice as long, there was a dip in energy. There was much more choreography, more variants being killed, and more comedy between Deadpool and Wolverine. Fortunately, Shawn already had shots of Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) up in the window. When we needed some way to cut around all that action without going way over our visual effects budget, they broke up the oner so that when you came back to it, it felt like the action was still moving.
Zimmerman: That intercut of Blind Al commenting on the fight below worked as a comedy beat and a reset for us with the oner. So, we could cut in a little deeper into it with the last two parts of the stitch. That’s Shawn’s foresight to grab a little cutaway that came in so handy. When they burst out the back of the bus, we did another cutaway where Deadpool falls face-first out instead of landing like the normal hero would.
CineMontage: We have to get to the insane cameo with Blade (Wesley Snipes), Gambit (Channing Tatum), Electra (Jennifer Garner), and X-23 (Dafne Keen).
Reid: Deadpool just goes nuts on all these people, it’s a great subversive moment where these heroes come out and everyone’s in awe, but Deadpool can’t remember who Electra is and keeps making fun of Gambit’s accent and his dialect coach. We couldn’t let up on the pace and the rhythm even if the audience was dying at a joke and probably missed some. If we had too many gaps in the rhythm, the scene starts to fall apart. The Electra/Daredevil joke hit so much harder than I think any of us anticipated. That was one of my favorite sequences.
CineMontage: What about the climactic fight between the X-Men superheroes against Cassandra (Emma Corrin)?
Zimmerman: This is another example of how well production and post worked together. The original cut wasn’t quite there. To amp this up, we asked George and Alex to shoot the craziest thing they could come up with and Shane came up with a brilliant idea of using Blade’s boomerang. If we weren’t working as fast as we were, and knowing the expectation and the gravity of this movie, I don’t think it would’ve happened.
Reid: We didn’t have to reshoot, which is a testament to everyone on the team and the mark of great leadership.
CineMontage: The collaboration really speaks for itself when editors have a significant say in what second unit does, and vice versa.
Zimmerman: It also comes from 22 years of working with Shawn. The trust factor is something I really cherish. Not all editors are given that flexibility. Shawn and I consider each other creative partners, and with Ryan – this is our fourth movie together—he was very open to that as well. Shane came in and not only proved himself as an incredible editor, but had that creative voice with us. It’s definitely an experience that I’ll never forget. It was pure bliss.
