Ryan Reynolds just confirmed the worst-kept secret regarding Deadpool, and fans are happy to know it!
The saga of getting Deadpool to the big screen has been well known, yet still amazing to look back at. The basic gist is that in 2009, Ryan Reynolds was cast as Wade Wilson, the sword-wielding, wisecracking mercenary in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This led to fan hopes for Reynolds thus playing Deadpool, the wildly popular X-Men anti-hero.
Those hopes were dashed when the movie turned Deadpool into a literally muted mess for an ugly fight scene. Reynolds would cite it as one of the biggest letdowns of his career (well, until Green Lantern came along).
However, in 2014, test footage leaked online of a short action sequence with Reynolds as Deadpool fighting guys in a car. It wowed fans by nailing the character perfectly, from his costume to motor-mouth delivery to openly addressing the camera. The buzz was enough to convince 20th Century Fox to go for a Deadpool movie with Reynolds, directed by Tim Miller.
The result was a monster hit that outgrossed any other film in the X-Men franchise. Deadpool 2 followed two years later for another huge take and when the character joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2024, Deadpool and Wolverine became one of the biggest movies of the year (and the entire MCU franchise).
For over a decade, the whispers have grown over who leaked that original test footage online. Well, Reynolds has settled it once and for all!
Ryan Reynolds has opened up about Deadpool test footage leak
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Ryan Reynolds discusses how fans may have found him perfect for Deadpool back in the day, but the studio wasn’t sold on a character who, at the time, was still considered a “fringe” on the Marvel comic book landscape.
"I'd shot test footage for it a couple years before, and the studio just didn't want anything to do with it. And Deadpool's a fringe character. People didn't really know who he was, and I loved him. I was obsessed with it because I loved that he knew he was in a comic book movie. It was kind of meta, it was kind of new. But the test footage existed, and it really was a case study of how this could work. And they just wouldn't do anything with it."
Reynolds then confirmed what was frankly the worst-kept secret in Hollywood: He himself was the one who leaked the footage in a desperate attempt to get the movie made.
“Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth. I [was] like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law!’ But the internet forced the studio to say, ‘We’re gonna make this movie.’ Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in. And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”
This isn’t exactly a bombshell as of the four people who had copies of the footage (the others being Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick), Reynolds had the most clout to get the footage leaked without blowback. He’s also teased he was the one in various interviews over the years, so he’s just confirming it now.
Fans will no doubt be more than grateful for Reynolds breaking the rules as the video provided Fox with a billion-dollar franchise, established Reynolds as a box office star, and remains among the best superhero movies ever. Reynolds took a big risk and it paid off and that daring is a reason Deadpool rules.
The Deadpool movies are streaming on Disney Plus.