The story of how Deadpool finally came to fruition has already become the stuff of Hollywood legend. Ryan Reynolds had been attached to the role since 2004, and finally got to play Wade Wilson in live-action five years later as part of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, only for the prequel to butcher the character to an unrecognizable extent, with Reynolds admitting he agreed to star in the movie simply because he didn’t want anyone else cast in the role.
Undeterred, the solo project remained mired in development hell for another few years, with the now infamous test footage initially being created in 2012. Fox still didn’t give Deadpool the green light, but after it mysteriously leaked in the summer of 2014 to an overwhelmingly positive response from fans, the studio not-so-coincidentally signed off on the Merc with a Mouth’s first standalone film just two months later. And the boardroom must have been kicking themselves for waiting so long given that Deadpool made $782 million at the box office to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.
Of course, Zack Snyder also knows a thing or two about fighting against the studio to see his unfiltered creative vision unleashed, and he too won his battle after his four-hour version of Justice League was released onto HBO Max last month. In an interview conducted on the set of Netflix zombie actioner Army of the Dead in 2019, long before the Snyder Cut was made official, the filmmaker even joked that he should have gotten Ryan Reynolds to step in and leak it for him, Deadpool style.
“Ryan’s a good guy probably to do it. What are you gonna do? What’s anyone gonna do to Ryan? He doesn’t care! Zero f*cks s given. Good idea.”
Of course, the Snyder Cut is out in the world and generating plenty of discussion, but when the director gave the interview, there were no guarantees that Warner Bros. would ever allow it to happen, so guerrilla tactics might well have been on his mind.