Return of the Jedi is generally considered to be the worst of the original Star Wars trilogy, but however you may happen to feel about the movie, there's no denying that it features some of the most memorable and iconic moments of the entire saga.
It's no secret that Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is a big Star Wars fan (he's in line to helm a movie of his own for Lucasfilm down the line), and the filmmaker has now revealed that he paid homage to a key moment from Return of the Jedi in the Merc With a Mouth's upcoming MCU debut.
The scene in question is from Luke Skywalker's final confrontation with his father, Darth Vader, in the Emperor's throne room, when, in an attempt to goad Luke into fighting him, the man who was once Anakin Skywalker taunts his son about seeking out his sister, Leia, and turning her to the dark side.
“I vividly remember the scene in which Luke is hiding from Vader in the Emperor’s room and Vader gives the speech that ends with ‘If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps your sister will,'” Levy tells Esquire. “It was dead quiet [in the theater]. Pin-drop silence. Suddenly, Vader has pushed the wrong button. Luke comes screaming out of the shadows and just goes to town in a light saber battle against Vader. The way that felt: The forty seconds of stillness from the audience, then the spectacle and emotion, is seared not just in my eyeballs but in my heart.”
Levy doesn't share any details on the Deadpool sequence this iconic moment inspired, but it sounds like Star Wars fans will know it when they see it!
“For one key scene in the movie, I said to my stunt and action team, ‘Guys, this is the Jedi moment.’ I pulled up that scene of Vader and Luke on my phone and restudied how it was photographed, how it was blocked, the framing, the tempo. The keen Star Wars fan will see the shot in my ‘Deadpool’ movie that was inspired by a moment that I saw in a theater decades ago. That’s a forever memory. And that’s a treasure.”
The previous Deadpool movies were mostly played for laughs, but they did have their more serious/dramatic moments, and it sounds like this ROTJ-inspired scene in Wade Wilson's third big-screen outing might be one of them.
Morena Baccarin (Vanessa), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Leslie Uggams (Blind Al), Rob Delaney (Peter), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) And Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio) will all return as their respective characters, and they'll be joined by franchise newcomers Emma Corrin (The Crown), who is believed to be playing Cassandra Nova, and Matthew Macfadyen (Succession).
Specific lot details remain a mystery for now, but Wade and Wolvie are expected to find themselves (trapped?) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A recent report claimed that Loki's TVA, including Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Miss Minutes, will be involved. We have also been led to believe that Wade's MCU debut will be far more integral to Phase 5 and beyond than we first realized.
Deadpool 3 was scheduled to hit theaters on May 3, 2024, but the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike will likely cause a delay. Though nothing has been made official, the trades believe the film will be pushed back to July.