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Marvel Studios is set to release its first hard-R feature film, Deadpool & Wolverine, next week. The film was in development hell for several years because star Ryan Reynolds was unable to develop a story after working on Deadpool 1 and 2 with longtime Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The 2019 studio merger between Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox also derailed the process as it would allow longtime X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Following his first appearance as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009, star Ryan Reynolds wanted to reboot the character completely. In 2010, Reese & Wernick were hired to pen the script after working on fan-favorite zombie film Zombieland. On October 28th, 2010, the completed script leaked online for many fan blogs to read in its entirety, and they were immediately blown away by how accurate the film could be if it were ever made. CinemaBlend commented on the script during their coverage:
“In it’s best moments, [reading the ‘Deadpool’ script] is like reading ‘Van Wilder’ meets ‘Kill Bill’, a genius mix of insane dark comedy and ridiculous over the top violence the likes of which we’ve never seen in any other superhero movie before… With the right director and Reynolds in the lead, this script has the potential to be the ‘Dark Knight’ of R-rated superhero movies.”
Reynolds praised the script, and first-time director Tim Miller was hired after directing many video game cinematics through his company, Blur Studios. Two years passed, and in 2012, Reynolds and Miller eventually created a test footage trailer to show Fox executives what the first film could eventually look like if greenlit. The studio was still hesitant to greenlight the film due to its graphic content and lack of box office success following 2009’s Watchmen by director Zack Snyder.
Two more years passed, and on July 29th, 2014, Blur Studios leaked the 2012 test footage onto their website under the codename Weapon X (via Blur Studios). Nobody knows who exactly uploaded the video and made their webpage public during Hall H of San Deigo Comic-Con 2014. It was quickly taken down within the hour, but the damage was already done. The video was first recorded by a blurry cell phone and then screen-recorded in high definition. It was quickly uploaded to both YouTube and Vimeo for fans to view in HD. 20th Century Fox greenlighted the first Deadpool movie two months later, on September 19th, for a February 12th, 2016, release (via New York Daily News). Ryan Reynolds mentioned to Yahoo Movies that the leaks are what ultimately got the movie made:
“I was excited, because you can look back at an email chain from all of us, the core group involved in Deadpool, saying ‘We should leak this, f—-,’ like three years ago. Saying, ‘Hey, if this thing is going to stagnate, one of us should just say ‘Whoops, I slipped it online by accident.’ And nobody seemed to want to nut up and do that, myself included. Someone did it for us, years later, when we all completely assumed it was dead in the water.”
Again, many assume that Reynolds himself leaked the footage after waiting so many years for the studio to greenlight the project. However, The Hollywood Reporter tried to dig and find out who at Blur Studios uploaded the footage or if it was director Tim Miller himself:
“I am now prepared to say with near (but not total) certainty that it was either the film’s director, Tim Miller, or someone close to him. And while Miller hasn’t publicly said he was behind the leak, numerous sources point to him or one of his colleagues at Blur. I have no smoking-gun proof other than my typically very reliable sources on such matters. But if so, it was a bold move from a filmmaker who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was a guy pushing 50, trying to get his first movie made. What was going to happen to him? Be banned from directing movies?”
A decade later, Reynolds completes his trilogy and teams up with longtime friend Hugh Jackman, returning as Wolverine. Reynolds couldn’t crack the code on what the third film would be after years of begging Jackman to return following his masterpiece in Logan. Jackman originally called Reynolds up with the idea of a third film, and Reese and Wernick wrote a draft six weeks later.
Ironically, the third film in the trilogy is set to be released on July 26th, 2024, to coincide with this year’s San Deigo Comic-Con. It will be exactly ten years since that fateful night when the test footage was leaked online for the world to see. Will Reynolds finally reveal who leaked the footage at the Deadpool & Wolverine panel next Thursday? We may never know.
Deadpool & Wolverine will hit theaters on July 26th
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