Directed by Tim Miller (in his directorial debut) and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, it is a spin-off of the X-Men film series and its overall eighth installment.

The film stars Ryan Reynolds in the title role, alongside Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, and Brianna Hildebrand.

Following a greenlight from 20th Century Fox in 2014 after test footage for a potential film was leaked, principal photography took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, between March and May 2015.

After the successful opening weekend of Wolverine, Fox officially began development on Deadpool, with Reynolds attached to star and X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner involved.

These included the Academy Award-winning Gopher Broke and a DC Universe Online trailer, which was "epic and cinematic, everything [Fox wanted] their comic book movies to be".

After several meetings the studio agreed the film could not be reconfigured for a more traditional PG-13 rating, and gave Miller "a low-six-figure budget" to produce some test footage.

[49] At different times during development, James Cameron and David Fincher, both friends of Miller, read the film's script and championed the project to Fox executives.

[59] After reading the scene, a Fox executive described the film as a combination of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Natural Born Killers (1994), a description the writers felt was accurate.

[60] A month later, Fox was testing actresses to portray the female lead, including Morena Baccarin, Taylor Schilling, Crystal Reed, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Sarah Greene, and Jessica De Gouw.

[83] Leslie Uggams said that she was in the film in July 2015 playing the role of Blind Al.[24] Tim Miller stated that Jed Rees portrays "The Recruiter", and "did a good job of being creepy and syrupy sweet".

Miller explained that Colossus would be a solely CGI creation in the film,[7] with Andre Tricoteux cast to provide motion reference on set for the role along with the voice.

Lines added after filming included Reynolds doing an impression of Wolverine star Hugh Jackman's natural Australian accent, and another where Deadpool asks whether the character Professor X is being portrayed by James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart at that point in the X-Men timeline.

[82] Motion capture supervisor Greg LaSalle agreed, noting that Miller held off working on the CGI for Colossus until after the film was edited to avoid spending money on shots that would not be used.

Fully replacing Deadpool's head was going to be too costly, so Weta Digital warped each shot based on facial references from Reynolds and adjusted the lighting to reflect the changes instead.

For example, the sex montage with Wilson and Vanessa was to play along with Frank Sinatra's version of "It Was a Very Good Year" in the script, but it was changed to Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" during editing.

[86] A soundtrack album featuring Holkenborg's score and the songs heard in the film was released digitally on February 12, 2016, and physically on March 4 through Milan Records.

The latter release, for Blu-ray and DVD, included behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and two audio commentaries: one by Tim Miller and Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, and another by Reynolds, Reese, and Wernick.

[115] The film was re-released again in April 2018 in a Deadpool Two Year Anniversary Edition Blu-ray package, with collectible covers as well as "stickers, car decals, temporary tattoos and a set of paper dolls".

[116] Deadpool was made available on Disney+ in most regions excluding the United States on February 23, 2021, as part of the streamer's launch of the new Star hub which focused on adding more mature content.

Its South East Asia performance was compared favorably to bigger superhero films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (both 2014).

The site's critical consensus reads, "Fast, funny, and gleefully profane, the fourth-wall-busting Deadpool subverts superhero film formula with wildly entertaining—and decidedly non-family-friendly—results.

[126] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post scored Deadpool three-and-a-half out of four, calling it a "voraciously self-aware comedy" and the first R-rated Marvel film "with real teeth".

[145] TheWrap's Alonso Duralde said Deadpool "shouldn't work, but it absolutely does", feeling that it successfully balanced comedy with superhero action, and that the chemistry between Reynolds and Baccarin gave enough weight to the plot to support the tone and violence.

[150] Todd McCarthy at The Hollywood Reporter felt the film took a while to get going, "but once it does, Deadpool drops trou to reveal itself as a really raunchy, very dirty and pretty funny goof on the entire superhero ethos".

[153] Chris Nashawaty graded the film a 'B' for Entertainment Weekly, saying it "doesn't have the most adrenalized action sequences or the deepest origin story" but makes up for that with R-rated fun.

[180] Analyzing potential reasons for this, Screen Rant's Alex Leadbeater said that while the film "earned a solid thumbs up from most", it was generally not praised by top critics for offering any "depth or related subversion of its genre".

[181] A variant cover for Marvel Comics' X-Men Gold #1, with art by Ron Lim and released in April 2017, references Deadpool's Oscar snub.

James Gunn, director of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, rejected this saying Deadpool was a success because "it's original, it's damn good... and it wasn't afraid to take risks".

[184] After Fox's Logan (2017) also became a success, Forbes' Paul Tassi reiterated Gunn's sentiments, saying the rating was "appropriate given the 'adult' nature of these two heroes", but "too much stock is being put into unrestrained violence rather than people examining what actually makes these movies work".

[207] In March 2022, Shawn Levy (who previously collaborated with Reynolds on Free Guy and The Adam Project) joined as director, with Reese and Wernick returning to write the screenplay.