By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In the highly successful Deadpool & Wolverine film, there’s a fun running gag where the Merc With the Mouth teases Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character that he’ll be appearing in Disney’s Marvel movies until the actor playing him is 90. Given that enthusiasm for one-half of the title characters, many fans assumed we’d be getting many more movies featuring everyone’s favorite WHAM-loving hero.
However, Ryan Reynolds recently revealed that he doesn’t plan to make any more Deadpool movies. While most fans are sad about this declaration, the actor is making the best choice for himself and for Marvel.
Why Ryan Reynolds Is Quitting On Deadpool
What’s the context for this surprising declaration behind Disney’s newest golden boy? Ryan Reynolds was recently interviewed by fellow Sony Marvel alumnus Andrew Garfield, and they began talking about the prospect of making more Deadpool movies.
To everyone’s surprise, Reynolds cast doubt on the idea of doing a fourth Deadpool movie for several reasons, including that he wants to spend more time with his family and that Deadpool works well when there’s “scarcity and surprise.” That means he thinks there should be a long wait between movies (like the six-year wait between Deadpool 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine).
Interestingly, Ryan Reynolds seemed to cast some oblique shade on Disney when discussing his willingness to create more Deadpool movies. The comment about the character needing “scarcity and surprise,” for example, seems to be calling out how the House of Mouse likes to tie actors to decade-long contracts and crank out as much content as possible. He also claimed that he made Deadpool & Wolverine “to be a complete experience instead of a commercial for another one,” which seems to call out Disney’s tendency to make otherwise exciting shows and films feel like launching pads for the next big thing.
While Ryan Reynolds didn’t completely rule out starring in another solo Deadpool movie, he offered some great insight in between thumbing his nose at Disney. He pointed out that his character is a “supporting character much more than he is a main” and that Deadpool works better as an “underdog” than as the hero. Because of that, he said he’d be more enthusiastic about being a supporting character in another hero’s film, citing how much he’d love to play “fifth banana” in a Gambit film starring Channing Tatum.
Respect Ryan Reynolds As An Artist, He’s Right About Everything
The more I heard Ryan Reynolds describe why he doesn’t necessarily want to do more Deadpool solo films, the more I found myself respecting him as an artist. He’s completely right about his character’s films feeling special because we have to wait long periods of time between each entry, and even Marvel’s biggest fans must admit that, given the chance, execs would crank out as many crappy Deadpool appearances as possible to try to sell toys and Disney+ subscriptions.
For that matter, Reynolds could make like Robert Downey Jr. and keep coming back for bigger and bigger paychecks, but he’s making an admirable choice to basically miss out on easy money in order to preserve the integrity of his character. Obviously, the Deadpool actor isn’t hurting for money, but it’s an open secret in Hollywood that being an MCU actor is an easy way to score one high-paying gig after another. I can’t help but admire that the actor seems ready to pull back for artistic reasons right when he’s in a position to make Disney put forth maximum effort into writing him a series of oversized checks.
Finally, for all the love Ryan Reynolds clearly has for Deadpool, I’m glad that he could set his ego aside and realize that his character would be much better utilized as a sidekick than as the main star. The Merc With a Mouth is a bit like Hulk in this way: a character whose individual stories don’t always work (some of those Deadpool comics are rough, y’all) but whose extreme personality is fun for other characters to bounce off. That’s the real secret behind Deadpool & Wolverine’s success. It’s basically an X-Men movie where Deadpool gets to be a hilarious fish out of water.
Ryan Reynolds is right: we don’t need more Deadpool solo movies. We need him as a secret sauce sidekick that pops up in future MCU adventures. How great would it be for him to finally interact onscreen with Spider-Man or for him to steal scenes in Avengers: Doomsday? The fact that the actor behind the iconic character agrees he should be a vulgar supporting character rather than endlessly playing a leading man does something I no longer thought possible: gives me hope for the future of Marvel cinema.
