Director Tim Miller Breaks Down That New 'Deadpool' Trailer Into Little Chimichanga-Sized Bites

I spent a good 15 minutes or so of my Christmas holiday explaining Deadpool to my in-laws. That new red band trailer had arrived online and they were so full of questions. Who is this guy? What's his deal? When does the movie open? In other words, this purely anecdotal piece of evidence suggests that the Deadpool marketing is starting to do its job. If the older members of my extended family, already gently lowered into geekdom by the X-Men and Marvel Studios movies, are curious about Marvel's "merc with a mouth," then maybe this thing will play beyond the already initiated.

And while I explained the trailer in the living room, the internet was busy picking apart the trailer. And while internet commenters the world over were going through this thing shot-by-shot, director Tim Miller was sitting down to answer all (well, most) of your pressing questions. Let's check out this official Deadpool trailer breakdown.

For the complete breakdown of the trailer (and it's pretty extensive), you're going to want to head over to Empire. We'll hit up some noteworthy highlights right here.

One of the most interesting tidbits Miller reveals is the film's unspecified location. Although the script describes the city as looking like a "pre-post apocalyptic Detroit" (which is certainly evocative), the grungy, urban setting was vital in distancing Deadpool from the rest of the X-Men universe. His unnamed corner of the world had to be wildly different:

I always like the way the writers described the city in the script which was 'a pre-post apocalyptic Detroit'. And that's about as specific as they got. And I liked that. You know, it doesn't say that it's anywhere specific. I think there are some certain geographical clues in our story in that everybody knows that the X-Men live in upstate New York-ish and so we can't be too far away. But the idea was that it should look like a shitty place because you want to set Deadpool and his world apart as something different: grittier, nastier, you know, more like Daredevil where it's down in the streets where he's dealing with small-time shit that the X-Men and their shiny hi-tech world don't deal with.

As for the supporting cast, Miller revealed some more information on Brianna Hildebrand's Negasonic Teenage Warhead. He admits that she was initially selected because they "fell in love with her name" (and how could they not?) and that her powers were slightly tweaked for her cinematic incarnation. Oh, and she's not nearly as quiet in the finished film as she is in the trailers:

I think Deadpool wishes she'd keep her mouth shut more than she does in the film! Because she's quite snarky. But, you know, her whole attitude is this disaffected teen who thinks Deadpool's just a douchebag. And so that's her whole attitude. She's really not that silent in the film or at least she's silently surly because she just can't be bothered to engage with this asshole. That's the basics of her personality: silently shaming, judgmental personality.

And finally (and most importantly), Miller spoke about including the metal-skinned mutant superhero Colossus in the film and how he relished the opportunity to create a version of the character who actually looks like his comic book counterpart:

We got a big old fight with him in the third act which is great. He's always been one of my favourite characters just because he's just so visually impressive and you know, when you're a comic book reader, the writing's important, but also you want these incredible looking characters and action and I always loved him from my early days collecting comics. But to me he was always this giant behemoth, and to do it as sort of a normal-size guy didn't seem to fit the character, and more importantly I think we got a lot of value out of him being larger than life and, you know, this fantastic physical presence in – and I mean fantastic like otherworldly – this otherwise very grounded film. And he really connects us to the X-Men universe too which is a good thing in small doses.

While we're on the subject of Deadpool and Empire, Ryan Reynolds revealed a new video where dons that red and black costume to hawk the next issue of the physical magazine, which will devote the cover story to the film. Naturally, the whole spiel is aggressively R-rated and filthy, so put some headphones on if you're in public. Also, if Reynolds is willing to slip into that outfit for a magazine ad, will he consider a birthday? Maybe a bar mitzvah?

Deadpool opens on February 12, 2016.