Ryan Reynolds Recruits Nickelback to Sing Fan-Favorite Spirited Song

By Jenna Anderson

The holidays are officially upon us, and there's absolutely no shortage of festive movies and television shows to get fans into the spirit. One of the most recent entries into that field is Spirited, a musical comedy that debuted on Apple TV+ earlier this fall, and provides an updated take on the mythos of A Christmas Carol. Along the way, Spirited offers quite a few original songs — and it looks like one is getting remixed in a major way. Ryan Reynolds, who stars in the film, recently debuted a new official version of the song "Unredeemable." The caveat is that it is performed by one of the most polarizing — and in the eyes of some, maybe "unredeemable" bands in recent years — Nickelback.

"Will, @OctaviaSpencer and I are so grateful for the love everyone's shown #Spirited," Reynolds' tweet reads. "So we asked @Nickelback to sing Unredeemable. Just seemed like the right thing to do."

What is Spirited about?

Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future. For the first time, A Christmas Carol is told from the perspective of the ghosts in this hilarious musical twist on the classic Dickens tale.

Along with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, the Spirited cast includes Octavia Spencer (The Help), Sunita Mani (GLOW), Patrick Page (Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical), and Aimee Carrero (Elena of Avalor).

Does Ryan Reynolds make commercials?

This Nickelback collaboration is just one of many examples of Reynolds' advertisements heading into clever and meta directions, including (but certainly not limited to) casting actress Monica Ruiz shortly after she starred in a bizarre Peloton advertisement, bringing Rick Moranis out of retirement, and even creating a commercial with Kids in the Hall actor Dave Foley in the span of six hours.

"We're really risk-averse," Reynolds previously said of his Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin campaigns. "So, people really think that we like to shoot from the hip, because we move so quickly and that sort of stuff. But, we really think this stuff through. We really find our guard rails. In the same way I write Deadpool. It's like, 'Okay, what is a person that's hyper-sensitive to this type of material going to say?' What's the guy who just doesn't give a **** about anything going to say? I want to find the middle where everyone feels sort of seen in that."

"I've approached that with Aviation and everything else we're working on," Reynolds added. "Working through that lens of empathy and that guides us in a weird way. That doesn't mean that you can't be subversive or super funny, and risky, or at least feel super risky. But, it definitely prevents you from stepping in the wrong direction. I say that knowing that I am just as susceptible to stepping in something that I didn't mean to step in as anybody. There are mistakes."

Spirited is now available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+.

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