Ryan Reynolds knew long before X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released that the movie had f*cked up Deadpool very badly, so it must have been hugely frustrating for the actor to play the role, having already spent five years trying to get a solo effort off the ground, knowing all along that it was going to be a complete misrepresentation of the comic book fan favorite that would leave audiences pissed.
In the years since, Reynolds has admitted that he only agreed to star in the prequel because he didn’t want anyone else cast as Wade Wilson to potentially jeopardize his chances of getting the Merc with a Mouth his own franchise, but it would be another seven years after the release of Origins that it finally happened.
Ironically, Deadpool earned over twice as much money at the box office as the Hugh Jackman-starring pic to become the highest-grossing R-rated feature ever made, a crown it would lose two years later to its own sequel. And now, Origins is being added as part of the Marvel Legacy Collection on Disney Plus this coming Friday, but if you’ve never seen if before, then you’re best turning it off after the phenomenal opening credits, because it’s all downhill from there.
Hugh Jackman is as reliable as ever in the lead role, and Ryan Reynolds shines before his mouth gets sewn shut, but other than that it’s comfortably one of the weakest installments in Fox’s thirteen-film mutant franchise. X-Men Origins: Wolverine saw the studio’s plans to develop an entire line of prequels abandoned at the first hurdle, and pointed the property in the direction of a full-blown reboot instead, so it did kind of work out eventually in the long run.