For the previous decade, Deadpool has change into an unlikely success story because the raunchy outsider upended Hollywood norms, broke field workplace data and reached new heights with this summer time’s $1.3 billion grosser, Deadpool & Wolverine. The character additionally remodeled Ryan Reynolds into one of many largest film stars on this planet.
But extra quietly, the person who birthed Deadpool has parlayed that success into rewards virtually extraordinary for any comedian guide creator. Over the previous yr, writer-artist Rob Liefeld capitalize on the cachet from the character with a a number of offers involving producers and studios hoping to search out “the subsequent Deadpool.”
In April, forward of Deadpool’s July opening, Warner Bros. picked up the rights to Avengelyne, primarily based on a fallen angel character solid all the way down to Earth comedian from the Nineties. The A-list package deal has Olivia Wilde hooked up to direct and Margot Robbie and Simon Kinberg hooked up to provide. That deal concerned a $2 million payday for Liefeld for the acquisition value, in line with a number of sources. And whereas it was an indication of how strongly Warners wished to stay within the Robbie enterprise after final yr’s Barbie, having a comic book by Liefeld gave the package deal additional heft.
Then in October, Liefeld achieved one thing that had escaped him for many years: securing the film and publishing rights to Youngblood below one roof. It was a private victory, because it was the very first comedian revealed by Image Comics, the corporate Liefeld co-founded with different famous person artists who defected from Marvel within the early Nineties.
To make the deal, Liefeld made peace with Scott M. Rosenberg, a writer and producer whose declare to fame was turning an obscure black and white indie comedian titled Men in Black into a success Will Smith film. Rosenberg additionally held sure rights to Young Blood creations, a degree that bedeviled Liefeld for years. With that concern settled, Liefeld and Rosenberg then teamed with producer Adrian Askarieh to start organising the IP. The trio took conferences at CAA, WME, UTA and Range Media in October, hyping the title because the final nice superhero comedian that isn’t taken. The trio in the end signed with CAA for the endeavor.
Those two developments are on prime of the royalties Liefeld enjoys from the surge of Deadpool’s recognition. Liefeld has a deal distinctive amongst creators of Marvel and DC characters. Some take pleasure in royalties for sure books or obtain discretionary bonuses for film or TV utilization from the businesses (Marvel pays some creators $5,000 for character’s a film look, for instance). But Liefeld receives fee any time Deadpool seems onscreen, in merch, in video video games and in comics. It’s a deal that not even Stan Lee, the late co-creator of Spider-Man and Iron Man, benefited from. Nor Jim Starlin, co-creator of Thanos, Gamora and Shang-Chi, or Todd McFarlane, co-creator of Venom.
“When Deadpool exploded into Fortnite, was that basically good for my youngsters’ non-public training? Yes. Yes, it was,” he advised Gizmodo in an 2020 interview. “I’ve Deadpool income streams which have existed since 1991.”
In some methods, 2024 is an unlikely third act for Liefeld. Liefeld burst onto the comics scene as a wunderkind creator, solely in his early 20s when he led the Marvel comedian New Mutants from a low-selling title on the verge of cancelation to revitalizing it in such a approach that when it was relaunched over a yr later as X-Force, the primary concern bought a document 4 million copies. Deadpool proved enduringly in style, particularly after Liefeld left with different Marvel creators in 1992 to launch Image.
And whereas Liefeld flooded the comedian racks with creations, his tenure at Image was short-lived. By 1996, he contentiously parted methods with the publishing home and his companions. But whereas his comedian and inventive fortunes sagged, his Hollywood life started.
After a New Line deal for Avengelyne within the mid-‘90s, extra adopted. Few concerned an precise revealed comedian. In 1998, an motion idea The Mark was arrange in a seven-figure deal at Universal with Will Smith hooked up to star and Steven Spielberg eying to direct.
Shrink! was arrange at Columbia in 2002 with Jenifer Lopez hooked up to star and produce the film, described as Analyze This with superheroes. The pitch concerned simply 5 Liefeld-drawn visuals, and the producers hoped it will ultimately launch a comic book. Shrink! in the end shriveled in growth hell however was re-set up in 2019.
In 2003, New Line Cinema acquired the sci-fi action-comedy pitch Planet Terry in a deal valued at mid-six towards seven figures. The pitch, centered on an intergalactic witness safety program, got here with 10 pages of an unpublished comedian. It was re-optioned twice, producing extra charges for Liefeld.
As these offers happened, Liefeld loved the Hollywood life, attending premieres and hanging out at celebrity-packed home events. But as with the whimsies of the enterprise, Liefeld noticed a dip in Hollywood fortunes and tried to return to comics. The first Deadpool film revived curiosity within the artist, nonetheless, and Liefeld, by no means one to overlook a possibility, hustled. In 2016, Avengelyne was optioned by Paramount for $300,000 towards $600,000 and had Akiva Goldsman producing. (A discount when in comparison with the latest Warners deal.)
Graham King, in a reported seven-figure deal, tried to launch a Liefeld-verse with characters from the creator’s Extreme Studios imprint ion 2017. And the Captain America-like Prophet was semi-close to getting off the bottom with Jake Gyllenhaal and Studio 8 within the late 2010s, additionally in six-figure offers.
It is probably going that Liefeld has made between $10 million to $20 million off his creations and popularity as Deadpool’s co-creator, making him probably the most financially profitable American comedian artist or author.
“He is probably the most profitable comedian guide creator with the least issues truly made,” notes one producer. “There’s no person else is in his class. He has managed to take all his titles and construct slightly empire.”
The asterisk right here is Mark Millar, the creator of comics resembling Wanted, Kick-Ass and The Kingman, who not solely discovered hit diversifications of his work whereas influenced the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but additionally bought his complete comedian publishing empire to Netflix in 2017. That deal alone was price $45 million, in line with insiders. (There have been rumors that Liefeld tried to promote his universe of creations to Netflix a la Millar, however that didn’t not rise up the chain too far, the insiders mentioned.) There’s additionally The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who has transcended comics to change into a small media mogul through his Skybound Entertainment, which is also behind Invincible and is actively concerned with showrunning and different elements of working a wide-ranging media firm.
But Liefeld’s superpower has been to construct an empire without having to construct an enormous firm as effectively.
“There is an actual urge for food for Rob’s titles due to the success of Deadpool,” notes one producer
