Director Tim Miller has blasted rumours surrounding his highly-publicised exit from Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool sequel.
He has opened up for the first time about his departure from the project, and bluntly told fans of the Marvel superhero franchise, "Don’t believe what you read on the Internet."
Miller was slated to direct Deadpool 2 after the huge success of the anti-superhero movie earlier this year (16), but it was reported he had "mutual creative differences" with the movie's star Reynolds, and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
It was also suggested his amicable departure from the project was due to Miller wanting a more stylised sequel, with a much bigger budget.
He has now taken to podcast CG Garage to dispel the rumours surrounding his shock exit, explaining. "I just want to say one thing to the geek audience out there because it’s important to me what the geeks and nerds of the world think because they are my brothers and sisters: I didn’t want to make some stylised movie that was three times the budget.
"I wanted to make the same kind of movie that we made before, because I think that’s the right movie to make for the character. So don’t believe what you read on the Internet. I wanted to do the same thing.”
Reynolds paid tribute to Miller when news broke of the director's departure from the sequel, and told Entertainment Weekly, "There is not a human being on earth that worked harder on Deadpool than Tim. He’s an incredibly, incredibly talented director.”
Stuntman-turned-director David Leitch, who co-directed John Wick with Chad Stahelski, will now helm Deadpool 2.
"He’s just a guy who’s so muscular with his action,” Reynolds said of his new director. “He also really understands those Deadpool sensibilities and where we need to take the franchise from here. And I love John Wick. One of the things that David Leitch does that very few filmmakers can do these days is they can make a movie on an ultra tight minimal budget look like it was shot for 10-15 times what it cost.”
Deadpool 2 is currently set for release in March, 2018.
