Earlier this year, when director Tim Miller’s Deadpool movie was filming in Vancouver, I got to visit the set with a few other reporters. While I was already excited to finally see Rob Liefeld’s most popular character come to life on movie screens, after speaking with most of the cast and the filmmakers, I left convinced we’re in for a special treat with Deadpool. Unlike a lot of comic book movies movies that play it safe and deliver PG-13 dialogue, the Deadpool movie is going to move the boundaries of what a superhero movie can show and do. It’s going to be loaded with sex, violence, great dialogue, and mayhem. It’s exactly what I want a Deadpool movie to be. I cannot wait for February 12, 2016 when the film hits theaters.

Anyway, I learned a lot about the movie from interviews and just being on the set in general, including how Colossus’ figures into the movie, if Deadpool will break the fourth wall, whether they planned any cameos, their unique approach to the soundtrack, if the action scenes play up the R rating, the way Ryan Reynolds contributed to the script, and so much more. If you’re looking forward to the Deadpool movie, you’re about to be a lot more excited.

Before going any further, if you haven’t seen the amazing Deadpool red-band trailer, I’d definitely watch that first.

65 Things to Know About Deadpool:

They are absolutely breaking the fourth wall in the movie. Deadpool will talk to the viewer. He knows he’s in a movie. Screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick said, “[T]he comics had given us the leeway to break the fourth wall, so in a way he’s just strangely omniscient, he can talk about the fact that he’s in a movie, he can talk about things that the character wouldn’t know and everyone around him is kind of like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

Deadpool references X-Men Origins: Wolverine by breaking the fourth wall and making fun of it. The movie disregards what happened in that film.

Cable was close to being in the film but they chose to wait until Deadpool was on his feet. It sounds like if they get to make a sequel Cable will be part of it.

On set they were already planning a post-credits scene that they consider “very cool.”

Stan Lee will have a cameo in the film.

Miller said that Colossus is the gateway drug into the rest of the X-Men universe and he plays the straight man to Deadpool.

David Fincher and James Cameron played a part in pushing the Deadpool script to the studio.

Ryan Reynolds was instrumental in shaping the script and gave plenty of notes. He was the one that wanted an origin story.

The film will not shy away from very graphic scenes and situations but doesn’t dwell on blood and guts. Reynolds said there are some “pretty racy, pretty hyper-violent things that happen in this movie and it’s been a lot of fun to shoot.”

The script is loaded with a number of pop culture references.

Morena Baccarin (Vanessa) will not have any powers in the film. If they get to make a sequel that’s when you’ll see them.

The Deadpool movie was a 48 day shoot with 15 days of second unit.

Some of the action scenes will embrace the R rating.

They’re aiming for 700 VFX shots but it could go up to 8-900.

The final Deadpool script is about 70% of the script that was leaked, “The same basic movie is there.”

The script was 6 years in the making. There were many different incarnations of it, including a PG-13 version.

Before the footage leaked and there was such a positive reaction to it, there wasn’t much hope of getting a Deadpool movie made. Ryan speculates now is the right time for a Deadpool movie to be made, with the influx of comic movies in the media, and not 5 years ago when people were first pushing for it.

According to Tim Miller, Ryan’s personality is very much like Deadpool’s.

Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool costume had a muscle layer underneath that had to be removed because Reynolds was “too ripped” and his own muscle plus the costume muscle made him look “too big.” So all the muscle we see in the film is “100% USDA Ryan Reynolds.”

As a nod to Liefeld, Deadpool has his pouches.

Deadpool is Pansexual according to Tim Miller.

A total of four hours were needed for Ryan Reynolds to get his complete makeup, and according to him it felt like “wearing a wet diaper on your face.”

Though they mostly stuck to the script, which had years to be refined, they did do some improv in some of the more comedic scenes, mostly because T.J. Miller cannot be tamed.

Deadpool does take place in the X-Men movie universe and as such fits into its larger timeline, and it is possible he might show up in the other movies. This affected how they wrote the script and what they were able to reference, such as the Blackbird and Professor X.

It was easier to put lesser known mutants in the movie, like Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Angel Dust, because it requires less approval and overhead for the larger X-Men Universe. Colossus required lots of approval and had to fit in the larger canon of the X-Men movieverse.

They were really devoted to getting the Deadpool costume right, which included his iconic white eyes for his mask. They film Ryan doing the action and doing all the same things without the mask, and then they add CGI animation to the shots with the mask to allow the mask to move and show the expressions. “You can’t promise Deadpool fans in the audience the authentic Deadpool and then give him a pair of pretty blue eyes.”

80s and 90s music is going to be a huge part of the movie.

Fox green-lit and dated the release of the movie before Tim and Ryan were told that they had the go ahead to make the film. They 100% attribute the green light to fan’s reaction to the leaked footage over social media, and feel they owe it to them to give them the best Deadpool movie possible.

The film will have plenty of Easter eggs might reference a number of other Fox mutants. While I’m not sure, we might see silhouettes of other characters.

The movie will feature a number of unusual songs. When Guardians of the Galaxy came out and featured that cool soundtrack, Reynolds said, “I did have a bit of a panic attack.” On set both Reynolds and Miller made it clear that the Deadpool script had its music cues in it years before Guardians was written.

Getting Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool makeup just right was a challenge and many tests were done, not only because in the comics he is scarred in different ways, but because it was important for the studio that Reynolds remained recognizable and “attractive”, and “just not Freddy Krueger.”

Aside from Deadpool himself, the rest of the cast’s look was kept very grounded and realistic as to fit within the context of the movie. But he tried to give everyone an interesting look, a “silhouette” to recognize their characters.

With an R rating, there is more blood and gore, but they tried to keep it as realistic in scope as possible. “Deadpool does some really graphic stuff to people but it’s all quick and it doesn’t linger on them either, it’s much more about how he does things and how he’s dealing away and flipping on them.”

They have snuck in some references to other mutants out in the world throughout the film.

Ed Skrein’s character’s outfit (Ajax) is very different from what is in the comics. More streamlined and functional like a SWAT outfit then the glitzy metallic costume from the comics.

Skrein is a massive comic book fan so being able to do a movie like this is one of his dreams. He was also really drawn to the movie because it’s not your average comic book project, they are not doing something that’s been done before, but at the same time trying to push something that is faithful to the original comics.

Ajax is British in the movie, as opposed to Canadian like in the original comics.

Skrein describes the relationship between Ajax and Deadpool as a “revenge story from both sides.” And it changes through the course of the movie, who wants revenge on the other and for what. It’s a complicated balance for the characters, as their personalities are so very different.

Skrein was on location three weeks before shooting began, training two times a day with the stunt team. He also did different weapons training in London before arriving on location.

Ajax’s main cohort in the movie is Angel Dust (Gina Carano) with whom his character has a very close but ambiguous relationship.

They are trying to stay as close to the original Deadpool comic universe as they can.

There was a lot of work trying to keep what Deadpool looked like under wraps, trying to control the release schedule of costumes and first looks for the movie.

For a specific scene in the movie a Vancouver freeway was shut down for two weeks.

The mood on set has been really positive, with Ryan and Tim spearheading, exciting, and inspiring the cast and crew to try and make the best Deadpool movie possible.

Morena Baccarin was not familiar with Deadpool or comics in general before landing the role of Vanessa Carlisle. “She gets down and dirty and she’s not a victim, she’s not a damsel in distress.”

Her character really gets into the action in this film; she’s scrappy.

Colossus will be 7 ft. 6 inches in the film and to the actor on set is 6 ft. 8 and wore 8 inch heels to look the part on set.

Some of the test footage that leaked will be incorporated in the finished film but with finished effects. It will look infinitely better than the test footage.

The first act of the film shows Deadpool using guns. The third act shows him wielding katanas.

While the script leaked awhile back, that didn’t stop them from still using it. However, they did make some alterations.

Angel Dust isn’t in that many comic books so Gina Carano and the writers had to create her character from scratch. But she had a lot of fun with creating the character’s look, which includes yellow contact lenses.

She is the henchwoman to Ajax in the movie and has a fight scene with Colossus. When doing her fight scene in a junkyard she was more worried about spiders than anything regarding the actual stunts.

Brianna Hildebrand trained in Muay Thai for a few months in preparation for her role as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Hildenbrand’s shaved head and piercings were part of her personal look and were incorporated to her character.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead is relatively new addition to the script since it was greenlit.

Garrison Kane and Wire were almost in the movie.

They will not being doing the “voices in his head” like some of the later Daniel Way Deadpool comics and the Deadpool video game.

They filmed in Vancouver for tax breaks and rebates on local hires on VFX.

Some days shooting on location in Vancouver were so rainy that cranes were brought in to cover the working area.

Deadpool was filmed with digital cameras with no plan for 3D while filming.

The film was mostly shot on location with limited sound stage work.

The blending of CGI and practical effects is really complicated and the VFX team was doing breakdowns for each fight scene and what was needed for each shot well before they actually started shooting the movie.

Because of the R rating they were able to make the action scenes much more brutal then what you would see in a PG-13 movie.

Though they wanted to keep the feel of a superhero movie, they tried to keep the moves and action of the fight sequences very grounded in reality.

While Ryan is very involved in the stunts, because of the nature of Deadpool’s fight moves and stunts, they are using a lot of doubles for the action sequences. This is made easier by the fact that Deadpool is in a mask, but they have tried to make it as seamless and possible.

For more from our Deadpool set visit: