Ryan Reynolds Was Writing Deadpool While Filming Green Lantern

Deadpool has become the most recognizable Marvel character around the globe, following the incredible success of the franchise’s debut film last year.

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool became the highest-earning R-rated film in Global box office history, and helped the actor reach the highest point in his career.

What many don’t know however, is that Reynolds actually started writing Deadpool – along with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – while he was filming Green Lantern for DC and Warner Bros.

After Reynolds played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he wanted to make a solo movie where he could do the character justice. Fox shot him down, and he turned to DC when offered the Green Lantern role.

When speaking with THR this week, Reynolds revealed that there was actually some overlap with the two projects. Instead of waiting for Green Lantern to be finished, he flew down his writing team to craft Deadpool after hours.

“The weird plot twist was, somehow, some way, Deadpool got reinvigorated at Fox while [Green Lantern] was happening. … What a lot of people don’t know is [writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick] flew to New Orleans and, while I was shooting Green Lantern, we were actually all together writing Deadpool.” He added, “We were breaking the story of the original Deadpool movie in a house that was being paid for by Green Lantern‘s dime.” All the while, Reynolds worried that he might never be allowed to play Deadpool, even if the film moved forward, now that he had hitched his wagon to Green Lantern. “I thought, ‘If Green Lantern is a huge hit, they’re never gonna accept me as both, and if Green Lantern is a huge failure — which it ended up being — they’re never going to hire me.’ “

That obviously wasn’t case, as Deadpool was one of Fox’s most successful properties to date. Despite Green Lantern flopping, the Merc With A Mouth found a way to live on.

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Deadpool 2 will be directed by David Leitch from a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. It’s currently in pre-production.