Deadpool wonders: “Do you think they canceled the show... cause of racism?!”

Donald Glover has posted a meta-referential script for the finale of a “Deadpool” TV series he’d been writing for FX Productions. Glover and his brother Stephen were set to write, executive produce, and serve as showrunners for the animated comedy series based on Marvel’s movie, but it was announced this past weekend that FX, Marvel, and the Glovers had decided to part ways. Glover’s script begins innocuously, before the irreverent Deadpool character addresses the prospective series’ cancellation.

“You know, I’m not mad about this whole ‘cancelled’ thing,” Deadpool says in the script. “I mean, is it even a good time to have a violent, gun loving white man ranting on TV? Other than the PRESIDENT?” As he speculates on why the show was canned, he first suggests it wouldn’t sell toys, before wondering aloud: “Do you think they canceled the show... cause of racism?! ... Yeah, but all the writers were black. And the references were pretty black too. ... Maybe we were alienating our white audience? No. We did a whole goat yoga episode. Damn.” Read it in full below.

Although FX cited “creative differences,” some media reports speculated that Glover’s busy schedule prevented him from writing the show. In response, Glover wrote this morning, “for the record: i wasnt too busy to work on deadpool.” The reference-heavy 15-page script that followed alludes to the Beyoncé biting saga, Black Panther, Fortnite, Bitcoin fluctuations, Facebook’s data hoarding, Taylor Swift, the merits of YBN Nahmir and Rich the Kid, and much more. At one point, he shoots an assailant in the head and says, “Take notes, teachers of America. One day, you’ll have to make a high-pressure shot like that”—apparently referring to Trump’s call to arm teachers.

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Pitchfork has emailed Glover’s representatives for comment on the authenticity of the script and the future of the series. After FX’s departure, it’s unclear whether Marvel plans to shop the animated series elsewhere.

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