Earlier this summer, Ryan Reynolds broke the internet only as Ryan Reynolds could. Unannounced, the Hollywood superstar dropped a viral marketing video in which he returned to his beloved role as Deadpool. Not only that, the Merc With a Mouth was officially welcomed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the same clip by Taika Waititi’s Korg. Suffice to say, the video was enough to give MCU stans a little bit of life.
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According to Free Guy director Shawn Levy, that video was entirely Reynolds’ idea. The two talked about it, the director came to the conclusion that there was no way Disney was going to let them do it, and somehow, Reynolds got it done.
“So that was a Ryan Reynolds’ marketing brainchild of which he has many,” Levy recently told ComicBook.com. “The thing about Ryan, as we all know, is great movie star, great actor, hell of a producer, but a marketing savant as well. And he called me up, he was like, ‘I have this crazy idea, Deadpool and Korg mocking our trailer.’”
Levy added that he was instantly on board, even though he didn’t think it would ever come to fruition.
“And I’m like, ‘Well, that would break the internet. That’s incredibly genius. They’ll never ever say yes,’” the filmmaker said. “And he calls me that night, and he was like, ‘They said yes.’ And I’m like, ‘Damn, they must really want Deadpool 3. And they also must really want to open Free Guy.’ I mean, the truth is when Ryan sent me the script for that, I knew it was solid gold, and I’m just thrilled we pulled it off.”
In a separate interview, Reynolds said he was hoping to scratch that Marvel itch and since both he and Waititi star together in Free Guy, Disney might say yes to the absurd idea.
“I did love the idea of playing with Deadpool and Korg in some of the marketing materials given the fact that Taika [Waititi] and I are in the movie,” Reynolds told us. “So, I kinda got to scratch the itch, inevitably anyway.”
Free Guy opens in theaters on August 13th.
