Deadpool

Who are the greatest ever X-Men? We’re going to try to answer that question with your help, by putting the spotlight on different individual X-Men from across the franchise’s long history and pairing up your votes with the votes and opinions of our panel of highly opinionated X-Men fans. Your scores will be added to ours to determine the top 100 X-Men. Today we assess the character that many people regard as the anchor of the X-Men, the stalwart hero who has arguably ndefined the team for generations. Yes, it's time to decide Deadpool's place in the ranks of the all-time greats. Also today: Cyclops.

To say that Deadpool was a hit because of its rating is a bit reductive, and honestly kind of insulting to the filmmakers, who managed to achieve something special by delivering an entertaining film based on a character whose only previous exposure to audiences left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Still, that R-rating drew a fair amount of attention, leading some to wonder if Marvel might take a similar risk. Disney’s Bob Iger previously said that fans shouldn’t count on an R-rated Marvel movie, and Kevin Feige echoes that sentiment while addressing the real reason why Deadpool was so successful.

Three days before Deadpool even hit theaters, word got around that Fox was already developing a sequel with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick returning. Since then we’ve heard a lot about what to expect from the sequel (Cable, mostly) despite the fact that Fox had yet to make an official announcement. That changed today at CinemaCon, of course, where the studio made it all very officially official, confirming the return of both Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller for Deadpool 2.

Civil War II is just around the corner, and the news is starting to trickle in about what exactly it’s going to be, and what comics will be included in Marvel’s massive summer event. This past weekend at C2E2, Marvel unveiled a host of Civil War II news, including several brand-new miniseries, as well as announcing some of the details for crossovers that take place in regular books.

After Deadpool opened in theaters to over $130 million, the so-called “Deadpool Effect” started trickling through Hollywood. PG-13 movies like Wolverine 3 and X-Force were immediately considered to be R-rated films, and other projects that were R-rated were finding new life in development. But one film that won’t be a victim of the Deadpool Effect, is Suicide Squad, which is keeping its PG-13 rating thankyouverymuch.

Deadpool demolished box office records, quickly becoming the biggest X-Men franchise film of all time and the highest-grossing R-rated film. It certainly wasn’t the first successful R-rated action comedy, but in terms of superhero films, Deadpool made a pretty major splash — which has fans wondering if we’ll see more comic book adaptations take the restricted rating route. While Warner Bros. appears to be open to the possibilities, there’s one studio that definitely won’t be taking a similar tack anytime soon…or ever.

After its third weekend of release, the little Marvel movie that almost wasn’t continues to dominate the box office and break records as Hollywood executives claw their way over one another in a mad scramble to see if they can get their hands on some superhero comic character they can slap with an "R" rating that hasn't been snapped up yet. Quarter bins all over Los Angeles are being torn apart by men and women in expensive suits like something out of The Walking Dead as every studio races to see which one can take the wrong lesson away from Deadpool's success in the most spectacular fashion. Deadpool has inspired fans to show their appreciation through art, and we've compiled some of the Best Deadpool Fan Art to celebrate his continued popularity.

Gambit has had a few…problems. There were the rumors that Channing Tatum was going to walk over budget disputes, then Rupert Wyatt left the film without a director, eventually replaced a couple months later by Edge of Tomorrow’s Doug Liman (reportedly Tatum’s top choice). With an October release date approaching, it seemed a bit crazy that Gambit could be ready in time, but now it appears that the latest X-Men solo spinoff has been given a reprieve as Fox has yanked it from their schedule and set release dates for two additional, unnamed Marvel projects.

Before it even had a chance to break records at the box office and become the highest-grossing X-Men film, Deadpool was already given the go-ahead for a sequel and fans began considering the possibilities for this new corner of the X-Men universe — will Deadpool appear in X-Force? Will he cross over with his mutant brethren in other films? Not so fast, according to the writers behind the Merc With a Mouth’s solo debut. They’ve got some big plans, but they’re not getting ahead of themselves.

In the Deadpool post-credits scene, Wade Wilson came out, Ferris Bueller-style, and told the audience that they’re going to have X-Force leader Cable in the sequel. That was enough to lead many to think that Deadpool 2 would start setting up the eventual X-Force movie, and this latest news would seem to be further confirmation. According to reports, in addition to Cable, Deadpool 2 will also feature another X-Force member: frequent Deadpool buddy, Domino.