Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds Credits Hate Mail & Angry Tweets For Making The Movie Happen
Nothing can leave a film studio more rattled than the cry of angry fans. Franchises have flourished or folded at the reaction of the audience, and one prime example was the live-action iteration of the Merc with the Mouth, "Deadpool." Initially brought to life in that bog-standard prequel, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," it was the common consensus that while the casting of Ryan Reynolds was perfect, the handling of the character in the film was terrible. Nevertheless, fans got a taste of what Reynolds' Wade Wilson could be, even if it was iffy on his first try.
Speaking to Desde Hollywood, Reynolds realized pretty quickly after his deep-dive into the character that Deadpool, at the time, was a risk to get a standalone story. It was only after fans reacted to test footage with Reynolds that the studio considered a change of plans. "Of course, no one had the balls to make it, and the movie sat on a shelf for years, and it wasn't until the fans saw some leaked test footage that we did and they overwhelmed the studio with hate mail, tweets, and anything else that they can do," Reynolds revealed.
Ryan Reynolds is certain that it was all the fans that got him the Deadpool gig
After that test footage made it out in the open, fan demand was high for 20th Century Fox to play the wildest card in the comic book movie history and finally bring the right kind of Deadpool to the world. "They said, 'we want a Deadpool movie, and we want it now!'" Reynolds recalled, with a common misconception being that he was the one calling the shots. "People had this false idea that I have been an ambassador for Deadpool for eleven years. Yes, I have, but I got nothing done," Reynolds admitted. "It was all the fans, and I just went along with it. Thankfully they did the hard work for me."
From there, the rest of Reynolds reviving his role as an initially mistreated hero was easy. Returning to screens in 2016 in his standalone film and coming back for more in "Deadpool 2" in 2018, Reynolds' tongue-in-cheek comeback tour raked in over $1 billion collectively. Now with the big Disney merger, and "Deadpool 3" on the way, things can only get better for us and just a little worse for any other superhero that crosses his path.