Nowadays, Ryan Reynolds is seemingly as much of a businessman as he is an actor, producer, and occasional screenwriter. In an interview over the weekend with USA Today’s Willie Geist, Reynolds discussed the unprecedented success both he and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor, writer and creator Rob McElhenney have had during their tenure as majority co-owners of the Welsh soccer team, Wrexham United, which has seen an unprecedented three consecutive league promotions, covered in the multi-Emmy Award-winning show Welcome to Wrexham.
The interview touches on Reynolds’ latest entrepreneurial sports endeavour, wherein he and Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman have purchased an Australian sailing team, which of course led to Geist asking about another potential Deadpool movie, and this is where things got particularly interesting.
Reynolds, in response, immediately exclaims, “Oh, wow,” given the scope of such a question (Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most expensive films ever made), not to mention the corporate overlords at Disney and Marvel likely came to mind immediately given their notorious emphasis on secrecy. He then cautiously continues, “I have some stuff kind of written, but I don’t think I’m ever gonna center him again. I think he’s a supporting character, you know, he’s a guy that is great in a group.”
Upon initially hearing this, it is understandable to ponder how a cinematic character such as Deadpool, whose trilogy of movies have set the record for the highest grossing R-rated film of all time with each release – a record that Deadpool & Wolverine still holds – would be ‘relegated’ to a supporting role in a future release not titled Avengers (more on that in a moment), but there is a strong basis to such an approach.
Few people understand the character of Deadpool better than Ryan Reynolds, who saw the sheer potential in adapting the character to the big screen, to the point that he intentionally leaked test footage anticipating the response from fans, which was so strong that Fox had little choice but to green light the project. As such, Reynolds realized from the beginning that Deadpool is at his absolute best when he is paired with a foil and/or a straight man to counter his antics, which is embodied in each entry by the likes of Colossus (Stefan Kapičić), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Cable (Josh Brolin), Domino (Zazie Beetz), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and even his friend and sidekick Weasel, played by T.J. Miller.
Although Miller did not appear in Deadpool & Wolverine due to past personal controversies, he made some interesting comments in February that add further intrigue to Reynolds’ own words over the weekend, with Miller telling the Detroit radio station 101 WRIF:
“I will also say that his idea for the next Deadpool film is, like, really good. You know, it’s just, it is really smart. He told me the idea. I kind of got hair on the back of my neck standing up because I was just like, I didn’t think you could do something that’s even more different than Deadpool & Wolverine.”
While there is still no clear indication of the next potential film, statements from both Reynolds and Miller seemingly point to a team-up movie akin to Thunderbolts, and there is a great deal of precedent here, as Deadpool has been a member of numerous teams in the comics, including a variant of the aforementioned Thunderbolts, Hereoes for Hire, Mercs for Money, Deadpool Corps, and multiple iterations of X-Force. This last point is of particular note, as X-Force appeared in Deadpool 2, but the team served as a punchline rather than a fully-fledged team-up, so perhaps Reynolds has an honest to God X-Force film in mind, where a different character can fill the central role while Deadpool plays a prominent supporting role.
However, we might very well see Deadpool in his first supporting role sooner rather than later, since Reynolds has coyly hinted at the Merc with a Mouth’s appearance in Avengers: Doomsday by posting an image with an anarchic “A” spray-painted in red over the Avengers logo. As on the nose as this may seem, Reynolds had previously dismissed the notion of Deadpool joining the Avengers, calling it “wish fulfillment,” and that “you can’t give him that,” before alluding to the “ensemble” piece he mentioned in his USA Today interview.
It’s unclear when we will see Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool next, but we can at least take solace in the fact that we will see him again in some capacity. Marvel and Disney would be leaving too much money on the table otherwise. As for Avengers: Doomsday, it remains to be seen if he will truly show make an appearance, and while Reynolds makes a decent enough argument as to why he should not appear, he also doesn’t necessarily need to be an Avenger to appear in an Avengers movie, and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a star has lied about their role in an upcoming MCU feature.