Deadpool & Wolverine Incredible Opening Sequence Was ‘Born Of Love’, Says Ryan Reynolds

*WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine*

How do you bring back a beloved movie character when they've already had the perfect cinematic send-off? For Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy, the director and star of Deadpool & Wolverine — which brings Hugh Jackman's adamantium-clawed mutant back to our screens for the first time since his emotional death in 2017's Logan — the answer was thus. Crank up the *NSYNC and have your fourth-wall breaking anti-hero quite literally dance on his grave whilst weaponising his skeletal corpse in an R-rated opening sequence for the ages — naturally. As Reynolds and Levy tell Empire in an exclusive, spoiler stuffed new interview with the creative duo for the freshly dropped Empire Podcast Deadpool & Wolverine Spoiler Special, it couldn't have been done any other way.

“That was one of the more magical, organic opening sequences that I've ever been a part of,” enthuses Reynolds, “and it came together in a way that felt like a once in a lifetime moment.” As Levy recalls, tackling fans' greatest fear — the desecration of Logan's very definitive ending — head on was always the plan. “I remember an early breakthrough where Ryan and I were in an office that we were sharing in New York and we had this idea, ‘What if we open at the sight of the thing that people are the most worried about? What if we literally open on one of the greatest final shots in the history of cinema?’ And I remember Ryan saying, ‘But what if he's not just at the grave? What if he maybe uses Logan in ways that are shocking and unexpected? And that unlocked a subversive glee that we just wrote all the way through.”

But even though the sequence does some truly unspeakable things with the adamantium-infused bones of our beloved Wolvie, as Reynolds himself says, it's all "born of love.” And even if that is said with an irreverent air of trademark Reynolds/DP sarcasm, it really was. “I'm a fan,” professes Reynolds. “I mean, I'm a genuine fanboy. I love the MCU, I love the X Men universe, and Fox has a running presence throughout this movie in part because Sean, myself, and Hugh [Jackman], our whole careers were made over at 20th Century Fox. Everything we did that feels lasting or important in our careers happened there. That's why there's a gentle and loving tip of the hat to that universe, that world, and everything in it here.” Just how gentle and loving sticking your hands through a corpse's forearms to get their claws to pop out is up for debate — but we absolutely get where Reynolds is coming from.

For more revelations about all things Deadpool & Wolverine from its star and director, dig your claws into our deep, deep, deep-diving Deadpool & Wolverine Spoiler Special, which is available now to subscribers on your pod feeds. Haven’t joined yet? Sign up here — and if you need any tempting, then check out 11 things we learned from our spoiler-filled interview here. For now though, it's bye bye bye from us — we're off to recap 11 things we're off to watch the movie again so we can really lock down our boyband choreo!