Before Deadpool & Wolverine became the next of the upcoming Marvel movies, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ comic book characters sharing the screen went way back. Remember 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Well, it’s one of our least favorite X-Men movies ever, but Reynolds certainly has fond memories on that set.
Long before the actor made the Merc with a Mouth a leading man with his Deadpool movies, Reynolds was initially cast as Wade Wilson for the late ‘00s Marvel movie about Logan’s beginnings. With Deadpool & Wolverine’s release imminent, Ryan Reynolds shared one unforgettable memory on the set of X-Men spinoff.
My first day, I walked off the set and Hugh said, ‘How do you feel?’ And I muttered, ‘Ah, I wish I could go back to that scene we shot earlier in the day because now I sort of see it.’ Five minutes later, everyone is being asked to come out of their trailers, lights are being flipped back on, wardrobe is being zipped back up. Hugh made it so I could shoot. He didn’t even know me, we had just met. I thought, ‘If I’m ever lucky enough to be breathing the rare air that this guy breathes, this is how you do it.’ I still pinch myself because we can be best friends but I can also be going, ‘That’s Hugh [expletive] Jackman, wow.’ That never gets old.
In an interview with The New York Times, Reynolds told Hugh Jackman that the actor had “the biggest imprint” on him at the time because it was one of his “earliest jobs.” Ryan Reynolds recalls that even though Jackman was a stranger to him at that time, he did him a kindness by having the cast and crew reshoot a specific scene because he expressed he wanted to.
15 years later, Reynolds described Jackman’s aura on set as one of “humility,” along with having a “level of graciousness” that he’d never seen in Hollywood prior to stepping onto X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Of course, Ryan Reybolds has also joked about the 2009 movie before too, once calling it “an absolute trash fire” that was totally “on” Jackman. But otherwise, without the movie, perhaps Deadpool & Wolverine would never have existed.
While Jackman and Reynolds have since earned some creative control over their iconic Marvel heroes, during the interview, they both recalled having zero back then. As the Wolverine actor shared, when he made the first X-Men movie, it was the first movie he had ever made in America. At the time of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds had been around the bin, having even been part of Blade: Trinity in 2004, but he certainly wasn’t the producer and writer he has since become on each Deadpool film and other recent projects like The Adam Project and Free Guy.
Ahead of Deadpool & Wolverine hitting theaters on July 26, Marvel boss Kevin Feige has reviewed the movie, calling it “incredibly emotional” and “the most wholesome R-rated film that anybody can ever see.” This movie has been a long time coming, and it’s clear Reynolds could not wait to work with Jackman on this film as much as us as an audience are excited to see them partner up on their own terms.
