Behind the Scenes of the Epic Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine Opening Credits With Method Studios

Method Studios was thrilled to be invited back to pitch on the titles for the opening sequence for Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine following their work on the opening sequence for Deadpool 2. In early January, director Shawn Levy reached out to Method from the Deadpool film set in London and gave an overview of what he wanted from the titles and then simply said, “We’re looking for ideas.” 

Soon after, Marvel sent a very early cut of the combat sequence, edited to the ‘90s classic pop song, ‘Bye Bye Bye’ from NSYNC. From the first few moments of the edit, the teams could already tell this was going to be a truly epic opening to the film. At this point in the process, the sequence only had a few of the credits in place, and Method’s task was to figure out how to creatively integrate all 30 required credits to fill out the title sequence, working collaboratively with the other vendors delivering the VFX on the opener.

Knowing this high-octane fight scene deserved a lot more than just basic credits placed on top of it, the teams wanted to explore the idea of having the credits be right in the middle of the action and even get in the way at some points. For example, when we see Deadpool go to kick the enemy, we see him kick through some of the credits as well, or his victims would crash into the typography, sending it scattering in the scene. 

“My favourite aspect of the Deadpool films is his ability to break the fourth wall and become ultra-aware that he’s in the middle of an action scene in a Marvel movie. I felt strongly that if Deadpool consciously knows this fight scene is being cut to Bye Bye Bye, he might just feel inclined to bust out some of the iconic NSYNC dance moves while killing off the bad guys.” Commented John Likens, executive creative director at Method.

To try and sell this idea to producer Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy, Likens taught himself how to do the Bye Bye Bye choreography via YouTube videos and proceeded to record the moves while wearing a motion capture suit. After he retargeted the mocap data to the previs Deadpool character rig, then added animated handheld camera moves to make it feel like shots out of a music video. There was a lot of creative exploration about what kind of environment the dancing moments would happen in, but the stylized hyper-real forest scene was everyone’s favourite. Ryan and Shawn thought it was hilarious, cracking up on the pitch call, and knew immediately it was going to work. Shawn told us, “It’s a one in a million idea and you nailed it!” 

In addition to the dance moves hopefully scoring laughs, Likens knew the compositions would work perfectly for the credits that needed to be displayed with multiple names in a stack. This film had five writers to credit at one time!

This sequence was also unique in the sense that there were multiple vendors all working together on various elements. The title sequence required all hands on deck to complete, and has been praised by fans online, many saying that it was the highlight of the film and the best opening sequence to any super hero film. 

Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theatres worldwide.