Ryan Reynolds Confessed That Someone Purposely Leaked Deadpool (Forcing Fox To Greenlight The Film)

Summary

• Deadpool, originally shelved by Fox due to fears of it being an outlier, was finally greenlit after leaked test footage created a buzz among fans.
• The success of Deadpool and its sequel proved that R-rated superhero movies can be profitable, challenging the notion that they would inevitably fail.
• Fox's decision to produce Deadpool led to not only critical and box office success, but also demonstrated the studio's willingness to take risks and push boundaries in the superhero genre.

The Deadpool franchise, which is soon to be a trilogy, is one of the most successful R-rated movies of all time. Until recently, Deadpool 2 and Deadpool held the number two and three spots, respectively. It was not until Oppenheimer was released that it overtook the two movies to land in the number two spot behind The Joker. Not too shabby for a comic book that was never supposed to be released on the big screen.

At the time that Deadpool was discussed as a feature-length film by Fox executives, the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that had been released up until 2016 all received a PG-13 rating. This was done intentionally so that a larger group of fans could see the movies without having to get the permission of adults. Given that Deadpool was a completely different animal from The Avengers, X-Men, Dr. Strange, and more, there was no way to do the comic justice, via a PG-13 rating. An R-rating was necessary. After shooting test footage with Ryan Reynolds in the starring role, who once was on the verge of quitting acting, Fox made the decision to scrap the film and had no intention of releasing it in the future.

Reynolds and the crew who worked on the test footage knew that they had a hit on their hands. But, because Fox would not budge on releasing the film, and Reynolds was laughed at by Hollywood for wanting to make Deadpool, it appeared that bringing Deadpool to the big screen was dead in the water. According to Reynolds though, this all changed when someone purposely leaked Deadpool to the masses and forced Fox to greenlight the film.

Deadpool Wasn't A Favorite When The Film Was First Discussed

Deadpool was a labor of love for Reynolds for over a decade. For nearly four of those years, Reynolds worked to find a team that could bring the story of the story of the anti-hero to the big screen. But, once screenwriter Rhett Reese, screenwriter Paul Wernick, and director Tim Miller jumped on board, the project started to take shape.

When this happened, the group put together a treatment, complete with test footage. While Fox owned the rights to Deadpool given that it purchased the rights to X-Men, of which Deadpool is technically a part of, fear of losing money was the driving factor in shelving the film and why it took so long for Deadpool to be made.

"You know, the reason it didn’t get made for the six and a half years that we were involved in it was because of fear, the fear of it being an outlier," Wernick explained. "The fear of it being an R-rated Marvel superhero movie."

Wernick went on to say, "Hollywood is so motivated by following the trends versus setting their own. It’s why so few original movies get made is because there’s the fear of, 'Well, if I make an original movie and it fails, I’ll have nothing, no reference point to then point back to and go well I made this movie because this other movie succeeded.' And, it’s why it took so so long for this movie to get made because it is an outlier. It is hard R. It is an adult antihero movie..."

Reynolds discussed Deadpool before it was released in theaters in 2016 and called it the "best and worst relationship [he's] ever been in" given how many hoops had to be jumped through to get the film into production.

"Eleven years, I’ve been trying to get this movie made," Reynolds said. "We had a script, we did that about six years ago, then we had a little bit of test footage for the movie. That test footage sat on a shelf at Fox for four years."

However, shortly after the film's fourth year anniversary on the shelf, something incredible happened. The footage that had been shot years ago was leaked, forever changing the fate of Deadpool.

Ryan Reynolds Admitted That One Of The Core Group Leaked The Movie

What Deadpool fans did not know when the footage was leaked was that it was not intentionally done by Fox. Instead, fans thought it was a teaser of what was to come.

But Fox never wanted the footage released and while it is clear it is one of four suspects, Reese, Wernick, Miller, or Reynolds, no one has fessed up to the act—a risky move that paid off with dividends but was nonetheless theft from one of the biggest studios in filmmaking.

"We did this test, did a budget, put a plan together and Fox said, 'We don't believe in the movie.' And then the test leaked," Miller explained.

"But it was a beautiful thing that happened for all the right reasons. But wasn't me. It was one of those things that I think should remain secret because a mystery is more interesting than the truth."

Reynolds was just as cagey as Miller was when it came to explaining how Deadpool came to be made, not taking the blame and not passing any around either.

"I know that one of us did it," Reynolds admitted. "There's four of us: me, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Tim Miller. We all said at the beginning that someone should leak it, so the idea was planted, but I'm 70 percent sure it wasn't me."

While many believe that it was Reynolds who leaked the footage, after the letters, emails, and phone calls that Fox received from fans, Fox recognized that they would do well to make Deadpool. As such, whether they wanted to do it or not, Fox was essentially forced to make Deadpool because of the money they stood to make by doing so.

Fox Was "Forced" To Produce Deadpool After The Leak

After the video of Deadpool was leaked, it was clear that there was an interest in an R-rated mutant film. As such, Fox greenlit the project just 24 hours after the leak went viral. This proved to be incredibly beneficial for Fox, given the critical and box office success the film and its sequel had.

Before Deadpool was released, the highest-grossing R-rated superhero film was Constantine, which grossed $230 million, according to Business Insider. As such, there was a very real probability that superhero projects with this rating would fail.

This was not the case for either Deadpool or Deadpool 2, which made $782 and $785 million at the box office, becoming just two of the numerous films Reynolds has starred in that have grossed over $100 million over the course of his career.

By grossing this much money, Deadpool made quite a profit for Fox. This is because the budget to get the film from pre- to post-production was just under $60,000,000. Better still, however, being the studio to develop Deadpool spoke volumes about how Fox was no longer afraid to push the envelope. They went on to make Logan, which now also sits in the Top 10 highest-grossing R-rated films of all time.

Deadpool 3 production paused due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, so there is no telling when it will be released or when fans will be able to see Hugh Jackman in his ripped state reprising his role as Wolverine. But when it is, Fox will yet again be the benefactor of releasing an R-rated superhero film. Just how many hundreds of millions it will be though is anyone's guess.