More than a decade after Deadpool became a box office sensation, Ryan Reynolds has finally confirmed what fans long suspected: he leaked the test footage that convinced 20th Century Fox to greenlight the R-rated film.
Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival, Reynolds admitted he was behind the 2014 leak, saying, “Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in. I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”
The footage, created by director Tim Miller in 2012, featured the wisecracking antihero in full, violent, fourth-wall-breaking form. Though Reynolds had portrayed a very different version of Wade Wilson in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the test footage offered a true-to-comics take that fans immediately rallied behind. The viral reaction forced Fox to act — and within 24 hours of the leak, the movie got a green light.
“At the time, the studio didn’t want anything to do with it,” Reynolds recalled. “Deadpool was a fringe character. People didn’t know who he was, but I loved him. I was obsessed.”
Reynolds joked about his mirror moment: “Some a**hole leaks it online, and I’m brushing my teeth like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law!’”
That “wrong thing” proved to be the right move. Deadpool (2016) went on to make nearly $800 million worldwide, with its sequel Deadpool 2 doing similar numbers in 2018. The latest entry, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), brought the characters into the MCU and shattered records with a $1.3 billion global haul — making it the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.
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