For actor Ryan Reynolds, bringing Deadpool to life on the big screen was a longtime dream with many false starts and setbacks along the way. As Deadpool 2 entered its second weekend at the box office, Reynolds tweeted pictures from his first costume test in the Merc with a Mouth’s iconic red and black outfit.
“2015. First time in the suit. It was so clean. So innocent. We both were,” joked Reynolds.
2015. First time in the suit. It was so clean. So innocent. We both were. #deadpool2 pic.twitter.com/3pVqhuXVmY
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) May 27, 2018
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Reynolds had been actively trying to bring the Marvel antihero to the big screen since 2004, with the character making his live-action debut as an antagonist in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While a standalone film was intended to spin-off from the Wolverine solo movie teased in a post-credits scene, tepid fan response to the radically different depiction of the character led to the project being shelved by 20th Century Fox.
After test footage originally filmed in 2012 with Reynolds voicing the character leaked online in 2014, positive fan response led Fox to greenlight a solo film. The 2016 film completely ignored the previous incarnation of the character, save for jokes made at his expense by Reynolds himself.
With the 2016 original movie becoming the highest grossing R-rated film of all time and Deadpool 2 firmly securing the second place spot in its second weekend in theaters against Solo: A Star Wars Story, it seems like Ryan Reynolds’ long-term passion project has clearly paid off.
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Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable and Julian Dennison as Russell. The film is playing in theaters everywhere now.