‘Mormons Can Sue Fox Over New Deadpool 2 Poster,’ Says Lawyer

As Once Upon A Deadpool premiered yesterday, a group of Utahns have come forward saying some of the film’s promotional material might be too much over-the-top for their liking. According to Salk Lake City’s ABC4, residents of Salt Lake have issues of one Deadpool poster that resembles a poster of Jesus used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Deadpool poster features Deadpool surrounded by angels as he is seen amongst clouds. It’s strikingly similar to a copyrighted painting titled “The Second Coming,” commissioned by the church in the 1960s. Coincidentally, Once Upon A Deadpool poster features the “second coming” of Deadpool 2 in a PG-13 format.

“It is a jab at the State of Utah and it is a jab at the LDS church,” patent attorney Steven Rinehart told ABC4. “The answer as with so many things in law, is it’s in the grey area.”

Rinehart explained that while copyright law has some exceptions, like use in educational settings, 20th Century Fox is using it for commercial purposes.

“The commonly cited exceptions are parody, criticism,” Rinehart continued. “People commonly say that non-commercial, meaning educational use, is an exception. Because this use is commercial, I would assume the LDS church would have a good claim for copyright infringement if they chose to pursue it, but they are generally reluctant to do that.”

Ryan Reynolds even filmed more footage for the PG-13 version after Fox agreed to donate a portion of its earnings to charity.

“Because it’s the season of giving, we will also be giving $1 for every ticket sold to F-ck Cancer, which will be renamed Fudge Cancer just for this limited-time ad campaign,” Ryan Reynolds recently said. “Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006. I’ve said no since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘Yes’ on two conditions. First, a portion of the proceeds had to go to charity. Second, I wanted to kidnap Fred Savage. The second condition took some explaining…”