--- title: "Once Upon a Deadpool" year: 2018 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-deadpool" fi1m_score: 50 critics_score: 47 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-19T09:43:06.121796+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T09:43:06.649832+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Once Upon a Deadpool (2018) Directed by David Leitch · 1h 58m · MPA PG-13 · Action, Comedy, Adventure **Fi1m score: 50** · Critics 47 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Fred Savage, tied to a bed, is asked to enjoy a film with the best bits taken out; so are we > Deadpool 2, trimmed for American teenagers, with a kidnapped Fred Savage added at the edges. The bedtime-story scenes are the best thing here and there are about fifteen minutes of them. The rest is a film you have seen, with the swearing bleeped and the point blunted. ## Synopsis Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) has kidnapped Fred Savage, tied him to a bed in a copy of the boy’s bedroom from The Princess Bride and is reading him a story. The story is Deadpool 2. In it Wade, a mercenary in a red suit who cannot be killed, tries and fails to settle down with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), joins the X-Men as a trainee and is sent to an orphanage where a boy who calls himself Firefist (Julian Dennison) is setting fire to the Headmaster (Eddie Marsan). Both end up in a prison for mutants. Then Cable (Josh Brolin), a soldier from the future with a metal arm, breaks in to kill the boy, and Wade decides, for once, to protect somebody. Savage interrupts throughout, and would like to go home. ## Review *Once Upon a Deadpool* is *Deadpool 2* with the blood mopped up, the swearing bleeped and about a quarter of an hour of new material wrapped around the outside. It reached British cinemas on 11 December 2018, in time for Christmas, under the tagline “Yule believe in miracles”, which tells you how seriously anybody involved was taking it. The idea was to sell the same picture a second time to American teenagers who had been too young for the first, with some of the ticket money going to charity. Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds wrote both the original and the trimmings, and the trimmings are the reason to bother. The new scenes are a sketch, and a good one. Wade Wilson (Reynolds) has kidnapped Fred Savage and tied him to a bed in a copy of the bedroom from [*The Princess Bride*](https://film.one/film/the-princess-bride), the 1987 film Savage appeared in as a child, and he reads him the story of *Deadpool 2* while Savage complains. Savage is the best thing in the picture. He plays a grown man under a duvet with a grievance, and he argues with the story rather than the storyteller: the plotting, the language, the awkward question of who actually owns these characters. We laughed, properly and more than once, at the sight of a man refusing to be read to, and the reason it works is that Savage plays it straight while Reynolds mugs. There are perhaps fifteen minutes of this in a 118-minute film. The film in between was good in its first form and much of it still is. Wade joins the X-Men as a trainee, is sent to an orphanage where Firefist (Julian Dennison) is setting fire to a Headmaster (Eddie Marsan) who has earned it, and ends up in a mutant prison a cell away from the boy. Cable (Josh Brolin), a soldier from the future with a metal arm, arrives to kill him. Brolin plays Cable as a man who has never heard a joke and does not intend to start, and it is the right choice against Reynolds. Dennison is a big, sulky, wounded kid and the film’s heart, such as it is. Zazie Beetz’s Domino, whose power is luck, gets the best set piece in either version, a convoy chase in which things fall her way while everybody else is shot at. Weasel (T.J. Miller), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) and Dopinder (Karan Soni) supply the rest of the jokes and most of them survive the scissors. The action does not. Deadpool’s violence was the punchline: bodies came apart in ways so silly that the gore was the joke. Take the gore away and you are left with the set-up. A fight in a prison yard, a run of parachute landings that go catastrophically wrong, Wade’s regular dismemberments: they now happen a frame after the camera has looked away, and David Leitch, who made his name on fights you could follow blow by blow, has his work chopped around every impact. The bleeps sit on top of Tyler Bates’s score like somebody leaning on a piano. We were bored during that convoy chase, which had thrilled us the first time, and then we were irritated, because nothing had been added to the scene and something had plainly been taken out. Reynolds also voices the Juggernaut, which the credits admit and the film hopes you will not notice. Against the standard of the first [*Deadpool*](https://film.one/film/deadpool), which was cheap and rude and knew one trick, this is the same film with the trick removed. Against the standard of a bedtime story, the Savage scenes point at a better idea: a whole picture of Deadpool reading to somebody who hates him, which nobody had made. Instead they are a wrapper. The part that is new is short and the part that is long is not new. It carries a 15 certificate here, so the audience it was cut down for still cannot get in, and the people who can have seen it already. Most critics landed near where we have, half amused and half puzzled about why it exists. If you have seen *Deadpool 2*, the Savage scenes are worth finding and the rest is a good moment to put the kettle on. If you have not, watch *Deadpool 2*. *Fi1m score 50, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics agree Once Upon a Deadpool is a re-edit of Deadpool 2 with the swearing and blood trimmed out, and they agree the new material is the only reason to watch. The framing device, in which Deadpool reads the story to a kidnapped Fred Savage in a nod to The Princess Bride, is praised almost everywhere as the highlight; several reviews call the cutaways funny, nostalgic and pleasingly stupid. Ryan Reynolds gets credit for keeping the jokes afloat, and the charity tie-in is noted approvingly. The reservations cluster around whether the film needed to exist. Most reviews call it a cash grab, with too little new footage to justify a ticket and cuts that leave the action thinner and the pacing choppy. The spread is fairly narrow, from lukewarm to hostile; Polygon is the sole clear supporter, finding enough laughs to forgive the scheme, while The Wrap is the harshest, seeing little more than a trimmed rerun. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (45/100, inferred): The review questions if it even counts as a movie, noting the cleaned-up version barely hangs together as the removal of darker elements damages the action. Some new gags land well, but the whole endeavor feels like pointless overkill. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/once-upon-a-deadpool-review.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Peter Sobczynski (40/100, inferred): The results are somewhat mixed. The cutaways to Deadpool and Savage are pretty funny, but the film itself is still kind of dumb and not worth the bother for most viewers. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once-upon-a-deadpool-2018) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the PG-13 re-edit of Deadpool 2 a shrug-worthy cash grab with a few good new jokes that don't compensate for the missing elements. The meta conceit with Fred Savage is praised as fun but interferes with pacing. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/once-a-deadpool-review-1168328/) - **Polygon**, Jordan Hoffman (70/100, inferred): The critic had a good time with the many jokes and the spectacularly dumb framing device featuring Fred Savage, calling the whole endeavor a brazen money-making scheme that still delivers humor thanks to Ryan Reynolds. Notes some cuts disrupt the flow but the new elements are often funny. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/12/18137917/once-upon-a-deadpool-review/) - **Collider**, Vinnie Mancuso (C): The critic finds the PG-13 cut mostly a waste of time and an obvious money grab with scant new footage, though the Fred Savage framing device is great and nostalgic. Notes the charity aspect is positive but the film is still not really for kids. [Read](https://collider.com/once-upon-a-deadpool-review/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (5/10): The critic finds no reason for the film to exist as a pointless PG-13 cash-grab that weakens Deadpool 2's appeal. He notes the framing device with Fred Savage offers some mild amusement and praises the charity tie-in. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/562937/once-upon-a-deadpool-review/) - **The Wrap** (30/100, inferred): The film is essentially a PG-13 recut of Deadpool 2 with limited new content in the form of interstitial sequences featuring Deadpool reading the story to a kidnapped Fred Savage in a Princess Bride homage. The new sketches are charming and entertaining but take up little screen time, leaving viewers mostly watching a trimmed version of the prior film. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/once-upon-a-deadpool-film-review-ryan-reynolds-fred-savage/) ## Details - **Director:** David Leitch - **Director:** David Leitch - **Writer:** Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick - **Music:** Tyler Bates - **Producer:** Ryan Reynolds, Simon Kinberg - **Cast:** Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool / Juggernaut (voice); Josh Brolin as Cable; Morena Baccarin as Vanessa; Julian Dennison as Firefist; Zazie Beetz as Domino; T.J. Miller as Weasel; Leslie Uggams as Blind Al; Karan Soni as Dopinder - **Runtime:** 1h 58m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 12 December 2018 - **Genres:** Action, Comedy, Adventure - **Budget:** $110 million - **Box office:** $51 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCf03KXyzIg ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: JP. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Princess Bride* (1987), Fi1m 86: The bedtime story this one is stealing from, and much better told. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-princess-bride.md) - *Deadpool* (2016), Fi1m 74: The cheap, rude original, with all the blood left in. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/deadpool.md) - *Hunt for the Wilderpeople* (2016), Fi1m 82: Julian Dennison as a sulky foster kid, in a film that earns its warmth. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople.md) - *Hot Fuzz* (2007), Fi1m 84: Action comedy that loves the genre it is laughing at, and knows the difference. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hot-fuzz.md) - *Kung Fu Hustle* (2004): Cartoon violence done for its own sake, and staged with real craft. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-deadpool