Creative Team Breaks Down ‘Like a Prayer’

Deadpool & Wolverine stunt coordinator recently discussed orchestrating the epic Deadpool Corps fight scene in the MCU movie. George Cottle featured on a massive episode of The Official Marvel Podcast this week. The Deadpool & Wolverine movie continues to capture fan interest. During the podcast, Ryan Reynolds shared that the “Like a Prayer” sequence was one of his initial visions for the film. While Cottle appreciated the idea, translating it to the big screen as a long take, or oner, was a daunting task. However, once the creative team mapped out the logistics and committed to the vision, the scene developed smoothly. Here’s more from the stunt coordinator on bringing that colossal moment to life.

“When we first talked about it, I saw the storyboards, and the storyboards were incredible,” Cottle explained. “The difficulty of pulling off something like that, and the implications of putting all of those pieces of the pies together, are so massive that it never really happened.”

“So, when they talked about this very early on, I was like, ‘Oh, here we go…’ But, when you shoot a movie like this, when you commit to a oner, you don’t have anywhere else to go,” Cottle continued. “You are committing to what that one shot is.”

Reynolds was the mastermind behind the “Like a Prayer” sequence, and the Madonna song adds the perfect touch. During the early days of Deadpool 2, Reynolds envisioned both characters walking into a scene together to unleash chaos. In the same podcast episode, he elaborated on the origins of the scene. The effectiveness of this scene is evident, as “Like A Prayer” is still trending on streaming platforms.

“I don’t even know,” Reynolds shrugged. “It’s like a weird thing. ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna. I had it in my head since Deadpool 2, that exact sequence, though not fighting the Deadpool Corps. We had to meet with Madonna, which was kind of an incredible ‘pinch me’ moment, and I sort of felt like she has some authorship over this movie just because it started with that song. The whole movie started with that one song.”

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