20th Century Fox continues to roll out one of the best marketing campaigns in recent memory with a newDeadpoolpromo in celebration of Australia Day. Or kind of…turns out the Merc with a Mouth can’t quite forgive the nation for Wolverine – nothing against Hugh Jackman, “He’s a delightful guy, he really is” – butX-Men Originswas a career low. You understand. The comic book incarnation ofRyan Reynolds' sassy assassin is known for breaking the fourth wall to deliver his oddball quips, but this has got to be some of his most mega-meta material yet.
It’s a ballsy campaign in that it has massive appeal to its native audience –Deadpoolfans, who will automatically get the joke, are finally seeing the character realized properly on screen – but there’s no guaranteeing how the broader audience will react to a snarky guy in a mask doing a bad Australian accent and making self-referential jokes. Fortunately,Deadpool’s unconventional tactics seem to have wrangled a fair bit of interest, as the movie iscurrently tracking for a $55 million-plus debutnext month when the film opens against Zoolander 2 and How to Be Single on Valentine’s Day weekend.
Deadpoolalso starsMorena Baccarin(Copycat),T.J. Miller(Weasel),Gina Carano(Angel Dust),Brianna Hildebrand(Negasonic Teenage Warhead),Stefan Kapicic(Colossus), andLeslie Uggams(Blind Al), and arrives in theaters nationwide February 12th. Throw another shrimp on the barbie and watch the Australia Day promo below.
Here’s the officialDeadpoolsynopsis.
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.
