This weekend’s announcement that Marvel and FX were not moving forward with Donald Glover’s animated Deadpool series was an all around bummer, but for the show’s co-creator, the news was also infuriating. Over the night Monday, the actor, rapper, and producer released a 15-page Deadpool script to share his pain.
The most repeated jokes were those that took stabs at Marvel and FX. Glover’s short script indicated that the studios believed the animated series would be too black. As Deadpool quips in one moment, “all the writers were black. And the references were pretty black too. I heard they went over the budget ordering Jamaican food at least once a week.
Though Glover didn’t shy away from the anger he felt at the decision, the real point of the tweet, it seems, was not to point fingers at Marvel or FX, but to showcase the kind of humor that potential fans of the series will never get to see. Honestly, it’s a total mystery why the decision was made not to move forward with the show.
for the record: i wasnt too busy to work on deadpool.
— donald (@donaldglover) March 28, 2018
The teaser is a high quality script with incisive and up-to-the-minute jabs at pop culture fixtures from from Bitcoin to Black Panther. There’s nothing here but funny stuff. Sure, it’s risqué and it pushes limits, but that’s Deadpool. The series couldn’t succeed if it was tasteful.
Without all the facts, it’s impossible to say for certain that race really was part of the decision, but judging from the skill at play in this satirical script, Glover’s claims seem to hold water. And that, like the cancellation of this promising series, is a total bummer.