Ryan Reynolds Reveals First Class of His Diversity and Inclusion Program, The Group Effort Initiative

Ryan Reynolds is one busy dude! The actor known for playing Deadpool recently wrapped production on Netflix‘s Red Notice with The Rock and Gal Gadot and his new movie Free Guy is expected to be released next month. He’s also taking part in fantasy football with other Marvel stars and continuing his longstanding feud with Hugh Jackman. However, Reynolds isn’t all work and all play, he’s also been extremely giving in the tumultuous year that is 2020. Recently, he donated winter coats to an entire school and he’s donated a lot of money for COVID relief throughout the year. However, his most interesting project to date might be The Group Initiative Project, which he announced back in July.

The Group Initiative Project is a new diversity and inclusion program that aims to develop talent from underrepresented groups in Hollywood. Reynolds announced he’d find 10 to 20 trainees who are people of color or who are from marginalized communities, regardless of age, and pay to house and train them for his next feature film. Well, it appears he finally found his first class! The actor took to Instagram to share a Zoom call with the winners.

“Congrats to the first class of Group Effort Initiative trainees as we start filming, The Adam Project for @netflix,” Reynolds wrote. You can check out the photo, which also features Blake Lively, below:

The Adam Project is a new sci-fi Netflix movie written by Jonathan Topper (Kodachrome, Warrior series) and directed by Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy. According to IMDb, the movie is about the following: “A man must travel back in time to get help from his 13-year-old self.” It certainly sounds intriguing! Congrats to The Group Initiative Project winners who earned their spot working on the film!

As for Reynolds next movie, Free Guy, he has said the following about the film:

“I always look at like, sports movies are good metaphors,” Reynolds said during a virtual Free Guy press conference. “The greatest sports movies ever made are not actually about sports. Field of Dreams, I wouldn’t characterize that as a baseball story. They used baseball as a vehicle to tell a really beautiful story about a son and a father trying to connect. And I think that we’re doing the same thing. We’re using the video game world, the Free City world, and video game culture, as a sort of a vehicle to tell this really beautiful and powerful human story.”

Free Guy is currently scheduled to be released on December 11.