Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds has admitted to leaking test footage for the original 2016 movie, claiming that his actions led to the film being greenlit by 20th Century Fox.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the 48-year-old dropped the bombshell revelation during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in,” he explained, “And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”
The footage, which he leaked in 2014, showed CGI test footage made in 2012 as a mock-up to what a live-action Deadpool movie might look like, and featured Reynolds as the voice of the iconic character. “I’d shot test footage for it a couple years before, and the studio just didn’t want anything to do with it,” Reynolds recalled, adding that the studio initially didn’t want an R-rated superhero movie as it went against their usual family-friendly approach.
“Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth,” he admitted, revealing that he was responsible for the leak, “And I’m 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,’ and 24 hours later, that movie had a green light.”
This revelation doesn’t come completely as a surprise, as Reynolds had hinted that he was the source of the leak over the years, such as stating that he “might have provided an assist” when asked about his involvement in the leak during a Vanity Fair lie detector interview in 2024, alongside joking that he was “70 per cent sure” he wasn’t the source of the leak during a segment on The Tonight Show promoting the original movie in 2016.
Still, what started as a security breach would ultimately prove beneficial for 20th Century Fox, as the original Deadpool film would go on to become a massive success, garnering over US$780 million at the global box office and spawning two equally successful sequels, 2018’s Deadpool 2 and 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, cementing the Merc with a Mouth in the MCU’s hall of fame.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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