Following Tim Miller's exit last month, we were concerned about the sequel to this year's R-rated surprise blockbuster, Deadpool. But 20th Century Fox didn't seem to panic at all, as they had already started looking for a replacement director over the next few days. While we had heard of three contenders for the job, they’ve finally closed a deal with one.
According to The Hollywood Reporter and multiple other outlets, David Leitch has been confirmed to helm Deadpool 2. He is best known for co-directing the 2014 action-thriller John Wick with Chad Stahelski and for serving as stunt coordinator and second unit director for numerous projects over the years.
But the Merc with a Mouth's second standalone movie won't be Leitch's first as a solo director. He called the shots for Cold War thriller The Coldest City, which stars Charlize Theron and has already moved into post-production.
David Leitch was suggested as the front-runner for director of Deadpool 2 in the previous reports, too. But the studio also met with some other directors, including Rupert Sanders, Drew Goddard, and Magnus Martens, before making the final decision.
Now that Leitch has signed on for Deadpool 2, Fox can now focus on another search - the one for a separate director to tackle the unconventional superhero's third standalone movie, which is already in the works. While the second movie will introduce popular mutants like Cable and Domino, Deadpool 3 will assemble the iconic mutant team X-Force.
Deadpool 2 was expected to kick off production in early 2017, but then Miller left and Fox had to search for his replacement. However, we did come across a report suggesting that the studio doesn't want the director's departure to cause any delays; they’re still aiming to head into production in January. Since Leitch has already joined the movie, it wouldn't be surprising to see the cameras start rolling on time.
