Credit: Inside the MagicRyan Reynolds reveals the one joke that was too much for Disney’s leading man.
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Despite several films adding to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2025, there still seems to be a lot of hype and buzz around last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, a film that quite literally propelled Deadpool and Marvel itself to brand new heights. After a string of duds, Deadpool & Wolverine was a beacon of hope for The Walt Disney Company, seeing both commercial and critical success.
Deadpool’s third theatrical feature grossed well over $1 billion, solidifying continued interest in both Ryan Reynolds’ portrayal of the “Merc with a Mouth” and in Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Jackman has been doing this for decades, though Deadpool & Wolverine is certainly the wackiest, most irreverent adventure his Logan has been on. Off-color jokes and crass comedy are par for the course when it comes to Deadpool, with fans curious if Disney’s ownership of Marvel might affect how crude Ryan Reynolds’ team of writers could be.
While rising to the same level of middle-school humor seen throughout Deadpool 1 and 2, Deadpool & Wolverine focuses much more on references, cameos, and the MCU’s ever-expanding, always-confusing Multiverse. Deadpool & Wolverine is still definitely dirty and earns its “R” rating, but there’s a special “adults-only” quality to the first two films that doesn’t seem like it’s there in this third, presumably final Deadpool-led feature.
Part of this could be down to Disney, with the company’s CEO, Bob Iger, requesting that one joke be wiped from the script entirely.
Bob Iger Said No to Crude Mickey Mouse Joke in Deadpool & Wolverine
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Ryan Reynolds revealed in a new segment from the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast that one joke involving Mickey Mouse proved too much for Disney’s own Bob Iger.
“The first time he saw the film it was in pretty good shape and [Iger] said ‘you got to remove the one line Ryan,’” Reynolds said, per The Wrap, “And I was like ‘what line?’ ‘You know the line.’ And I went, ‘Mickey Mouse?’ Yeah. The joke in question was revealed months ago thanks to the release of the Deadpool & Wolverine script.
At one point in the film, Deadpool would have exclaimed, “F–K! What we can’t even afford one more X-Man? Disney is so cheap. I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c–k in my throat.”
Reynolds pleaded with Iger to keep the Mickey Mouse joke in, “I was like ‘Bob the whole movie orbits around that line.’ That line is the film, it’s the thrust, the thesis, it’s everything. My brain when he said the one line was ‘Precious. Must keep the line.’ I really had to walk around his office a bit, do a couple laps and then we were good. We switched it up. He just didn’t want the Mickey Mouse joke in.”
Reynolds theorized that Iger’s decision to cut the joke entirely might have given it more infamy than if it had been included in the first place, but nevertheless, now fans know what really went down.
Do you think this joke should’ve stayed in Deadpool & Wolverine?