This month marks the 10th anniversary of the superhero comedy film, “Deadpool”, starring Ryan Reynolds as the titular merc with a mouth. After portraying an extremely misguided version of the character in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (which is satirized in the film), Reynolds sought to course correct and boy, did he.
After test footage of Deadpool was leaked online to overwhelming acclaim, Fox and the actor opted to move forward. Here, he stars as Wade Wilson, a chatterbox mercenary whose world comes crashing down after a cancer diagnosis, which prompts him to turn to an evil scientist named Ajax (Ed Skrein).
The latter tortures, disfigures and transforms him into Deadpool. With help from mutant allies Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Deadpool uses his new skills to hunt down the man who nearly destroyed his life, who has now taken his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).
When we talk about the best castings in comic book history, Ryan Reynolds was the perfect choice to portray Deadpool with his fantastic snarky wit (“It’s almost like the studio couldn’t afford another X-man”) and perfect comedic timing, which director David S. Goyer highlighted while working with him on “Blade: Trinity”. The rest of the cast did such a fantastic job as well, which audiences took note of.
When Deadpool released in 2016, the film opened with positive reviews directed at the perfect blend of comedy and action throughout, while also praising Reynolds stellar performance as the “Merc With A Mouth”. This acclaim and success turned Deadpool into a franchise, with Fox greenlighting Deadpool 2, released in 2018, adding Cable (Josh Brolin) and Domino (Zazie Beetz), as well as giving Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Dopinder (Karan Soni) more prominent roles.
Despite being deemed inferior to the original, Deadpool 2 still received positive reviews and was a box office success, thus prompting Fox to develop Deadpool 3. However, a mouse would be in their tracks.
In 2019, Disney bought 20 Century Fox, and while at first, the future leaked bleak, it would later be confirmed that Deadpool 3 is still in development, now at Marvel Studios. However, the development of Deadpool 3 would be one of the most interesting as Deadpool would be teaming up with Wolverine as Hugh Jackman, who stated he would never return, and decided to bring one of the best comic book castings back to life.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” would be released in 2024, 6 years after Deadpool 2, to overwhelmingly positive reviews, aimed more towards Reynolds and Jackman’s chemistry. Through its many cameos and easter eggs, the film was also an amazing love letter to a quarter century of X-men films and one that both of us saw in theaters multiple times each.
The box office success (in fact, all three “Deadpool” became the highest grossing R-rated films at the time of their respective releases) imminently means that Deadpool 4 would be in the works and sure enough as of 2026, it has been confirmed Ryan Reynolds is developing Deadpool 4. If you have not already, check out the original trilogy – it does not require maximum effort!