[Source: AP]

Shawn Levy is no novice when it comes to rumors around his projects. Years on “Stranger Things” taught him how to tune out the noise.

Yet even he’s found himself astonished by the sheer volume of speculation around “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

“The rumors around this movie are overwhelming,” Levy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But so is the anticipation, which is a nice situation.”

Anticipation might be an understatement for a movie that is poised to be the theatrical event of the summer, when it opens on July 26. The first trailer, which aired during the Super Bowl, was viewed a record 365 million times online in its first 24 hours. The second, which dropped this week, broke another record – for the most “F-bombs” in the MCU (six in less than three minutes).

Much of that excitement is because this film marks the first time Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine are being folded into Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both properties existed previously under the 21st Century Fox banner.

When Disney acquired the studio’s film and TV assets in early 2019, Wolverine had already died in “Logan,” a third “Deadpool” was in development and Marvel was still firmly in the PG-13 business, a rating that allows for only one F-bomb.

On a call with investors as the deal was going through, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger was already reassuring people that a Disney Deadpool would remain R-rated. Soon after, Reynolds also posted a photo on social media showing his character with Mickey Mouse ears on a yellow school bus labeled “Disney.” The meta humor, it seemed, was also firmly intact.

But what would the story be? Levy was announced as the film’s director in early 2022, coming in as a fan of Reynolds’ snarky tone and fourth wall breaking.

“There was no way I was going to reinvent a wheel, a tonal wheel, that works so beautifully,” Levy said. “Both Disney and Marvel, up and down the food chain, empowered Ryan and I to make this movie exactly as we dreamed.”