The First Deadpool Wasn't An Origin Story Until Ryan Reynolds Stepped In

Several years removed, 2016's "Deadpool" still feels like a minor miracle in the superhero movie genre. Ryan Reynolds fits the role of Wade Wilson like a glove, and he had to fight tooth and nail to get Fox to make the R-rated, ultra-violent, comedic "X-Men" spin-off in the first place. When it did happen, they had to make it with a much smaller budget than a typical comic book blockbuster, facing an uphill battle the whole way. But it worked like gangbusters. Had things gone another way, it might not have been an origin story for the Merc With a Mouth and, instead, could have just been an adventure featuring the character.

Reynolds had been determined to get the character of Deadpool right following his lackluster appearance in 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Given the response to that film, a solo feature was a non-starter at Fox. But some infamously leaked test footage that arrived online in 2014 forced the studio's hand. However, Reynolds was working on a script years earlier with "Zombieland" duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. In a featurette included on the Blu-ray release, Reese explained that their initial pitch to Reynolds looked pretty different:

"We originally pitched a non-origin story interestingly, just a Deadpool adventure. And we pitched to Ryan Reynolds and he enjoyed the pitch, but he was pretty emphatic about the fact that it had to be an origin story. So ultimately what happened was, we kind of melded the two."

The resulting film from director Tim Miller went on to shatter box office records, opening the floodgates for other R-rated superhero movies to come in the years that followed. Perhaps most notably, "Logan," not to mention "Deadpool 2."

So many projects that linger at big studios for years at a time are doomed to fail, particularly when it's a lone star trying to keep the thing alive. All the while though, Ryan Reynolds was still a working, A-list, in-demand actor. Another superhero came calling when he got the chance to star in 2011's "Green Lantern." When Fox made it clear "Deadpool" wasn't going to happen, he signed on to star in the DC Universe in the ill-fated adaptation. But that movie actually paved the way for the "Deadpool" screenplay to take shape.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Reynolds was speaking about the remarkable success that "Deadpool" enjoyed. He explained that he actually was working with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick during the production of "Green Lantern" to hammer out the script. Here's what he had to say about it at the time:

"The weird plot twist was, somehow, some way, 'Deadpool' got reinvigorated at Fox while ['Green Lantern'] was happening. [...] What a lot of people don't know is [writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick] flew to New Orleans and, while I was shooting 'Green Lantern,' we were actually all together writing 'Deadpool.'"

So, in some strange way, one of Reynolds' biggest disasters sort of paved the way for his greatest success. It's poetic in a peculiar, Hollywood sort of way. In the end, everything worked out incredibly well, and Reynolds will be suiting up as the fan-favorite mutant once again in "Deadpool 3" alongside Hugh Jackman's Wolverine for a shot at further redemption. "Origins" wasn't the team-up fans wanted; this very well could be.