Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool movie gets a director

After an irksome amount of to-ing and fro-ing, Fox have finally found a director for Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool spin-off, with visual effects whizz Tim Miller landing the job.

Miller has worked on comic-book movies including X-Men , X2 and Daredevil , so he's no stranger to the superhero scene. He also worked on Scott Pilgrim 's extremely nifty VFX, which is promising for offbeat anti-hero Deadpool.

The character, AKA Wade Wilson, AKA the Merc with a Mouth, had a few minutes of scene-stealing screen time in X-Men Origins: Wolverine , before being offed by Wolvie in the film's climactic moments.

This new outing will apparently stand independent from Wolverine , and the script, by Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, will apparently see the mercenary return to his comic-book roots, which means we should be in for tons of anti-heroism and fourth-wall breaking.

The path from VFX guru to director isn't always a smooth one (we've all tried to forget Alien vs Predator: Requiem ), but perhaps a fresh approach is what's needed to give Deadpool the edgy adaptation he deserves.

It's not yet entirely clear when the film will happen, although with a director now hired, Fox are obviously moving forward with the project.

Reynolds' rival superhero movie, DC's Green Lantern , is out this summer, and depending how it fares, he could be roped in on sequel duties for that one.

He's also shooting paranormal cop thriller R.I.P.D. this summer, so perhaps Fox would be looking to slot Deadpool in after he has completed work on that one.

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.