‘Deadpool & Wolverine’: Shawn Levy on Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman's 'Lovefest' (Exclusive)

On Thursday, Shawn Levy was honored with Director of the Year award at the CinemaCon 2024 Big Screen Achievement Awards.

“Extra” spoke with Shawn, who dished on “Deadpool & Wolverine” and said it was “a lovefest” for him, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

He noted, ‘Ryan, Hugh, and I have been friends in real life for over a decade and frankly, it’s kind of amazing.”

"Ryan has profound respect for the Logan character and the 'Wolverine' legacy," he continued. "Hugh has the same deep respect for 'Deadpool' and the very groundbreaking DNA of that franchise. So, it was kind of a lovefest."

When asked how they decided which character’s name would go first in the title for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Levy answered, “Ryan and I, we wrote on this together, we produced it together. So Hugh early on was like, ‘If you want your name first, that’s as it should be.' There was nothing but love in the making of this one.”

While Ryan and Hugh like to troll each other on social media, Shawn noted, “I love the social media feud as much as the world does, but in truth, I think, frankly, I think why we love that feud is that deep down, we know these guys have nothing but love for each other, and that’s real.”

As for the audience’s reaction to the footage of the movie, Levy said, “There’s all this expectation. There’s also an amazing amount of anticipation. I could feel it in the room today when we showed some footage. Yeah, it's a very different thing, right? Hugh was gonna be done after 'Logan.' Ryan made two 'Deadpools.' Nobody knew what the future held, but we just felt that we had a story worth telling, and I think audiences are really in for a treat, come July.”

Shawn couldn’t say too much about the movie, explaining, “My friend Ryan has trained me for fear of death to try and keep my mouth shut.”