“This is too much”: Todd Phillips Was Forced to Eat His Own Words after Billion-Dollar Success of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Proved His Bias Wrong
- Todd Phillips credited the excessive woke culture for people cancelling movies and creative people.
- This is perhaps what drove him to sway away from hard-core comedies and make a movie like Joker.
- In a not-so-surprising turn of events, Deadpool & Wolverine, the massive Marvel flick has surpassed Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie in Hollywood.
Known for his sarcastic quips and hilarious situational comedy, Todd Phillips is a director par excellence. He is famous for The Hangover series, Due Date, and his latest venture into dark comedy and drama with Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux.
His filmography before 2019 includes mostly comedy movies that tickle the masses’ funny bone. However, venturing into certain darker aspects of storytelling including mental health issues was the stark opposite of what fans were expecting from the filmmaker.
What made Todd Phillips make Joker?
The ace director Todd Phillips did not leave comedy for nothing. He had his reasons which included the excessive woke culture that leads to people cancelling movies and creative people over their work in movies and series. Before Joker came out in 2019, Phillips told Vanity Fair in an interview,
Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture. There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore—I’ll tell you why, because all the fucking funny guys are like, ‘F*** this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’ It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can’t do it, right?
So you just go, ‘I’m out.’ I’m out, and you know what? With all my comedies—I think that what comedies in general all have in common—is they’re irreverent. So I go, ‘How do I do something irreverent, but f*ck comedy? Oh I know, let’s take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this.’ And so that’s really where that came from.
Phillips’ frustration stemmed from the fact that he cannot freely express his story where characters are free to cuss and make bad decisions. There is an incessant need for people to take offense and then take social media by storm with arguments and their opinions on the whole situation.
On the other hand, when filmmakers and showrunners decide to be woke in their narratives, people often slam the work for going beyond what’s required and eventually dislike the end product. From She-Hulk to The Sandman, various movies and shows have faced the wrath of the masses even though they tried to be in line with the times.
Deadpool & Wolverine surpasses Joker to be the #1 R-rated flick
In a not-so-surprising turn of events, Deadpool & Wolverine, the massive Marvel flick has surpassed Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie in Hollywood. The fandom had been eagerly waiting for the collaborative event of the year to hit the theatres and it suitably delivered a combo of hilarious jokes, nostalgia-packed quips, and adrenaline-pumping action.
In an Instagram post, Phillips reacted to the news and congratulated everyone involved in making Deadpool & Wolverine a great success. He said,
Have to tip my hat to Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy for this absolute steamroller of a movie. We knew it was gonna be big, but this is too much. Congrats to everyone involved.
Previous claims made by Phillips turn to dust as the truth comes to light. People will accept jokes and comments despite being a part of the woke culture when done right. No movie can ever survive the box office with zero criticisms, all that matters is that the good should outweigh the bad. The director is forced to eat his own words as the Marvel movie proves him wrong.
Joker: Folie à Deux is set to release on October 4, 2024.
