Shawn Levy Deeply Regrets Passing Up the Chance to Direct THE WOLVERINE

Director Shawn Levy was an obvious choice for this year’s summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine. He had previously worked with Hugh Jackman on the 2011 film Real Steel, as well as Ryan Reynolds on Free Guy (2021) and The Adam Project (2022).

Levy has also worked on the likes of two Night at the Museum movies, Date Night, and the mega hit series Stranger Things, so he knows how to make quality projects that are funny and exciting to watch. But Deadpool & Wolverine is healing an old wound in Levy that he opened up about in a recent interview.

Levy sat down with Empire Online to talk about his career, and he explained his excitement to jump aboard this Marvel project, which links back to his biggest regret over the one project that got away over a decade ago:

"On the set of The Adam Project, Ryan asked me if I would consider doing Deadpool 3. And I remember him saying, 'I know you’re gonna say no, but I’m really going to try and talk you into it.' And my response was, 'I’m not gonna [frick]ing say no, are you kidding? It’s a hard and immediate yes, sir!' When we were making Real Steel, Hugh was looking to do The Wolverine, and he asked me if I wanted to do it. And like a moron, I said, 'No.' Because I was thinking at that time, 'Well, it’s your fifth time playing the character, I’m doing original films et cetera.' And I regretted it deeply for years. And so, when the opportunity came around again, thank God I was older and wiser enough to jump at the opportunity."

When talking about what makes this movie even more appealing, aside from the regret of missing out the first time around, Levy said:

"These are wildly different characters. You have the Merc With The Mouth, and you have a guy who doesn’t even like words very much. That is not a recipe for a love story, that’s a recipe for conflict. And there’s something delicious about that conflict."

From what we’ve seen so far, Levy was definitely the right director for the job. And I’m glad that while there have been some leaks, I feel like we are still in for plenty of surprises with this movie, and that’s my favorite part of being a Marvel fan!

Deadpool & Wolverine is set to hit theaters this summer on July 26th.