Deadpool director Tim Miller has said that he dropped out of directing Deadpool 2 because “Ryan Reynolds wanted to be in control of the franchise.” It had long been reported that Miller and Reynolds, who fought hard together to get the first film made, could not agree with the direction in which to take the series after the success of Deadpool. Miller was replaced by David Leitch in the director’s chair.

He said in an appearance on the KCRW podcast, “It became clear that Ryan wanted to be in control of the franchise. You can work that way as a director, quite successfully, but I can’t. I don’t mind having a debate, but if I can’t win, I don’t want to play. And I don’t think you can negotiate every creative decision, there’s too many to make. So Ryan’s the face of the franchise, and he was the most important component of that, by far. So if he decides he wants to control it, then he’s going to control it.”

Miller continued, “I’ve always been pretty good at the ‘moving on’ thing. I care deeply, and then you get to this point where you’ve gotta make a decision, and I’m pretty good about putting it in my rearview mirror. We had a meeting at Fox, and the writing was on the wall, so I said, ‘I get it. I’ll quit, and you guys can do what you need to do.’”

Miller recently had a similar experience on Terminator: Dark Fate, but this time he was forced to see it out till the end. Producer James Cameron in a recent interview said that he’d battled with Miller over the final cut of the film, and that ‘the blood is still being scrubbed off the walls from those creative battles.’ Dark Fate ended up bombing at the worldwide box office, despite largely positive reviews.

Tim Miller hugs a terminator statue during the red carpet fan event for the film Terminator: Dark Fate in Mexico City. ( AP )

Miller said in the KCRW interview that he would not want to work with Cameron again. “I’m sure we could write a book on why it didn’t work,” he said. “I’m still not sure and I’m processing, but I’m very proud of the movie.”

He added, “Even though Jim is a producer and David Ellison is a producer, and they technically have final cut and ultimate power, my name is still on it as director. Even if I’m going to lose the fight… I still feel this obligation to fight because that is what the director is supposed to do. Fight for the movie.”

Miller continued, “It has nothing to do with whatever trauma I have from the experience. It’s more that I just don’t want to be in a situation again where I don’t have the control to do what I think is right.” Mentioning an email that Cameron wrote to him to clear the air, Miller said, “I know we clashed a little bit. I put it all down to two strong, creative people with differences of opinion and I think it made the movie better. I’ll be back in LA in December. Let’s go get a beer.”

After the success of Deadpool 2, Reynolds went on to appear in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. He will next be seen in Netflix’s Six Underground. Cameron is busy with his four Avatar sequels, the first of which will arrive in 2021.

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