Ryan Reynolds Confirms Fan Suspicions About Deadpool Leak

It’s hard to imagine a time when Deadpool wasn’t one of Marvel’s most popular characters, especially in regard to mainstream and crossover appeal, but that was the case back in 2014. While Deadpool was popular in the world of comics, the character was having a difficult time getting to the big screen. That all changed when test footage for a Deadpool film featuring Ryan Reynolds hit the internet, creating such a fervor that 20th Century Fox soon greenlit the movie, thus launching the character into superstardom. No one knew who actually leaked that footage, but Reynolds has now revealed the long-awaited answer to that question.

Reynolds was speaking with moderator Anita Lee at the Toronto International Film Festival about what led to Deadpool getting the green light from Fox, and that’s when he confirmed fan suspicions about who leaked the test footage back in 2014 (via EW). “Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in,” Reynolds said. “And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”

Reynolds Faced A Battle to Bring Deadpool to the Big Screen

Reynolds recalled the struggle to get Deadpool to the big screen, and the journey actually began in 2012. That’s when Tim Miller and Reynolds teamed up to produce the test footage for an R-rated Deadpool movie, and they would take it to 20th Century Fox, but would end up hitting a wall.

“I’d shot test footage for it a couple years before, and the studio just didn’t want anything to do with it,” Reynolds said. Reynolds noted that the studio was hesitant to get involved with an R-rated superhero movie overall, and he also spoke about Deadpool’s mainstream appeal at that point in time being a factor as well.

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“And Deadpool’s a fringe character,” Reynolds said. “People didn’t really know who he was, and I loved him. I was obsessed with it because I loved that he knew he was in a comic book movie. It was kind of meta, it was kind of new. But the test footage existed, and it really was a case study of how this could work. And they just wouldn’t do anything with it.”

That’s when Reynolds revealed that he was the one who leaked the footage, and there was a point where he was on edge about how it would all play out. “Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth,” Reynolds said. “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.”

The Rest is Deadpool History

As we all know, that ended up working out quite well for all involved. The original Deadpool was made for a budget of $58 million, and it would go on to bring in over $782 million worldwide. It also became a marquee franchise for 20th Century Fox and eventually Disney, and it became one of Reynolds’ most popular roles in the process.

Deadpool 2 would then arrive in 2018, and while the budget got a boost to $110 million, it still delivered box office receipts with over $785 million worldwide. That all set the stage for the latest entry in the franchise, 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which brought in a franchise high $1.3 billion at the box office.

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