Ryan Reynolds Blames Fox For Ruining Deadpool

Ryan Reynolds is blunt about his first appearance as Deadpool: it sucked, and it was the studio’s fault.

At least, that is what the Blade: Trinity (2004) and Green Lantern (2011) star feels these days. Back in 2009, when he first appeared as Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he might have just felt fortunate to be portraying a character that pretty much everyone now agrees that he was born to play.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine has gone down in cinematic history as one of the worst X-Men franchise movies of all time, beaten only by Dark Phoenix (2019) and The New Mutants (2020) in a very dubious race on Rotten Tomatoes. In many ways, that puts Origins in the running for one of the worst comic book movies of all time, and there are a lot of reasons why.

The movie was generally perceived as coasting on the goodwill of previous (read: better) X-Men movies, which, fair enough. Critics and audiences alike accused the movie of wasting fan-favorite characters like Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) on a bland storyline and compacting decades of complicated Wolverine canon into a morass of plotholes.

Related: Marvel Officially Changes Wolverine’s Name Before ‘Deadpool 3’

But more than anything else, Origins was pilloried for introducing Ryan Reynolds as the wisecracking mercenary Deadpool, only to yank him out of the movie until the end, when he was reintroduced as a hodgepodge of mutant abilities played by Scott Adkins half of the time. The worst part? Sewing up the famously chatty character’s mouth.

There has been much discussion of what exactly happened behind the scenes to take one of the most motormouthed characters in comic book history and decide to make him mute. By some accounts, the head of Fox at the time just thought it was dumb that he talked, allegedly saying, “We don’t want a guy talking during a fight — that’s cheesy.” Apparently, said executive has never seen 90% of action movies.

Now, Ryan Reynolds has used the press junket around the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine to tacitly confirm that report (per Variety). In a discussion of Origins, Reynolds blamed Fox for the decision while still praising the movie for giving him the opportunity to work with co-star Hugh Jackman.

Ryan and Hugh, how did it feel to reunite as these characters after the less-than-beloved X-Men Origins: Wolverine?   

Reynolds: The first time we worked together on X-Men Origins: Wolverine,  it’s easy to say we got some things wrong. Deadpool sewing up his mouth was one of the all-time foolish studio notes. But at the same time, I’m so grateful for it. Hugh was a huge influence on me. It was the first time I saw how a movie star operates on set, and it defied all the preconceived notions for a movie star. He was so warm and welcoming. He made it safe to play. He knew every single person’s name.  

Related: Solo Hugh Jackman ‘Wolverine’ Project Passed: Possible ‘X-Men’ Future Canceled

Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, never one to shy away from self-promotion, chimed in via social media to claim that Fox begged him to fix their decisions:

I got my call right after this… “Rob, we messed up Deadpool. Help us fix it!” ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️ https://t.co/lK06xxg3uv

— robliefeld (@robertliefeld) July 10, 2024

However, in a previous interview with The Big Thing, Rob Liefeld claimed that Fox wouldn’t listen to him at all, saying, “I was very disappointed by it. I knew that they were mistreating him a year out. So, I begged them to do an after-credits with him in the mask coming out literally six weeks before it premiered…look, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, after the opening with Ryan cutting the bullets with the katanas, that movie doesn’t exist to me.”

So, perhaps we’ll never know what could have saved Deadpool 1.0 from terrible notes. But at least everyone agrees that it was Fox’s fault.

Deadpool & Wolverine is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 26. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, Matthew Macfadyen as TVA agent Paradox, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Aaron Stanford, and Jennifer Garner as Elektra from the Fox Daredevil franchise.

Is Deadpool’s first appearance one of the worst depictions of a comic book character? Tell us in the comments below!