Ryan Reynolds Says Deadpool Will Be a Supporting Character in the MCU Moving Forward
Have we seen the last of Deadpool?
We almost certainly haven’t seen the last of Deadpool, the character. He’s too beloved, and Ryan Reynolds enjoys playing him too much, for that. But what about Deadpool, the franchise? After two solo films for Fox, Reynolds’ Merc With a Mouth was partnered with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine for 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
You’d think that Marvel would do whatever it took to get another Deadpool movie into production after that kind of financial success. But Reynolds himself does not seem interested in a Deadpool 3 or Deadpool & Wolverine 2. He told Today that while he is working on ideas for the character, he sees him more as a “supporting character” in the future.
“I have some stuff kind of written, but I don’t think I am ever going to center him again,” he said, while adding “He is a supporting character. He is a guy who is great in a group.”
You can see Reynolds’ Today interview below.
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Reynolds’ comments are interesting, in that Marvel Comics has not alwys agreed with them. Yes, Deadpool has appeared as a member of teams like X-Force and even the Avengers for stretches. But it’s much more common in comics to see him headlining his own solo series. (He even killed the entire Marvel Universe on multiple occasions. Not exactly team player behavior!)
Of course, Reynolds had a lot of success bouncing his chatty Deadpool off of Jackman’s stoic Wolverine, and perhaps that’s what he has in mind when he says Wade Wilson should be a supporting character from now on. Certainly if Marvel put Deadpool in an X-Force movie, that would give a massive boost to a property that doesn’t have a lot of name recognition beyond hardcore comic fans. Given what Reynolds earns playing Deadpool, though, it may not be financially viable to cast him as the fourth lead in an X-Men spinoff movie, unless the rest of whatever team they put him on was comprised of relatively unknown actors.
But maybe that’s exactly what Marvel and Reynolds will eventually do. In the meantime, Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to open in theaters on December 18, 2026. Reynolds’ status for that movie (or for its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, in 2027) is not yet clear
