Did you see that four-minute clip up above? That's the extended trailer to Fantastic Four, one of the Marvel movies that isn't in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After two failed Fantastic Four films, Fox decided to reboot the series with what appears to be a more serious cast but, based on the fact that critics—and some of the cast—haven't seen the film that's set to drop this Friday, we're left to believe that the flick won't be as lit as we'd hoped.
So what does Fox do to build the final strains of hype? They recruited Deadpool to make a "cameo" at the very end to tell you that if you go see Fantastic Four, you can see the trailer for Deadpool, which is finally gracing theaters this fall.
Wait, what?
I mean, I know that Deadpool is popular AF—I've been a fan ever since he got his solo series and saw him slowly make his way throughout Marvel-616. When the Deadpool comic series relaunched in September 2008, the Merc With A Mouth was everywhere... literally. He'd become such a fixture for fans who loved his off-color humor and fourth wall-breaking antics he was all over everything. He had his main title, a zombie-infested series that kicked off in July 2009, a third Team-Up series that launched the following November and lead into the Deadpool Corps series, which featured not just "our" Wade Wilson, but also a host of alternate universe Deadpools... together. Add in the subsequent Deadpool MAX series and it was Deadpool overload... and that's just with titles that bore his name. Deadpool was a core member of the Uncanny X-Force team and the last Thunderbolts squad and found his way into books like Amazing Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Secret Avengers, and a host of other titles of varying degrees of popularity. Deadpool's even been featured in numerous variant cover pushes over the years, allowing for epic levels of buying comics you might not read otherwise "because Deadpool."
Why? Because homeboy is popular. Deadpool's such an Internet darling that fan demand basically forced Fox to secure Ryan Reynolds and make the Deadpool film we've always wanted. Which is AWESOME! I can't take my kid to see this flick, but I will be like a kid in a fucked-up candy store when it drops. What I DON'T want to see is Deadpool being used to shill every Fox-produced Marvel product film not in the MCU.
Mind you, it'd be different if Deadpool made an actual cameo in Fantastic Four—not like we'd know until Friday, but whatever. This "cameo" doesn't hint at that at all; it's essentially Deadpool saying "spend (fill in whatever movie tickets cost in your neck of 'Merica) to see my awesome, no-holds-barred trailer at the Fantastic Four film." With the film actually hitting in February of 2016 I'd be totally content to watch a Deadpool trailer in theaters with that much stylized gore and crude humor, knowing that I'll have to sit through what could possibly be an "OK" Fantastic Four film (hearing people behind the scenes say "it's not a disaster. It's a good movie" doesn't fill me with anticipation).
Look, I say all of that to say this: don't fuck this up, Fox. It was bad enough when I started to loathe having thoughts like "here I am, buying another Deadpool comic" like six years ago; don't make me tired of Deadpool BEFORE Deadpool even drops. You already have whatever money you're charging for this film from me; don't make me regret it.
