An Early Version Of Deadpool & Wolverine Played A Trick On The Audience

“Deadpool & Wolverine” (read /Film’s review) is smashing its way onto the big screen with a multiversal adventure that would’ve been difficult (if not impossible) to imagine only a few short years ago — but, if things had gone to plan, the version everyone is about to see in theaters could’ve been very different. While the team-up film is making headlines for bringing Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman’s Logan into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time, the two main stars are spilling new details on the original idea for the blockbuster. As if the universe-hopping, cameo-laden extravaganza wasn’t already packed full of internet-breaking surprises, that’s nothing compared to what was once a much zanier and even more shocking experience for fans.

Reynolds and Jackman recently appeared on the newest episode of “Hot Ones,” hosted by popular YouTuber and interviewer Sean Evans, where the pair of actors divulged some fun insights into the production, shared their respective Marvel memories over the years, and shed plenty of sweat while trying to prove their superheroic levels of tolerance for spicy hot sauce. (Spoiler alert: It’s pretty touch and go for a while there.) Amid all the antics, however, Reynolds dropped one previously unknown bombshell about their initial and extremely ambitious idea for what became the latest installment of the MCU.

Had this panned out, audiences might’ve walked into what they thought was a buddy-cop movie starring Reynolds and Jackman … only to realize five minutes in that this “intentionally bad” ruse was actually “Deadpool & Wolverine” in disguise.

Marvel has an established history of going above and beyond to preserve the biggest plot twists and reveals from its movies, from erasing entire characters from trailers to including scenes filmed specifically for the marketing to tossing out fake “leaks” into the ether and muddying up the waters to keep fans constantly guessing. But all of those extreme measures look like child’s play in comparison to what Ryan Reynolds playfully admits was the original plan for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Before the movie was ever even given that final title, the Deadpool actor revealed on “Hot Ones” (via Variety) that Marvel could’ve gone full “Cloverfield” on this threequel. As he explained:

“The original idea with this movie was to shoot a fake movie called ‘Alpha Cop,’ that was intentionally bad […] I even had one of the posters made. It was about two guys that were sharing one brain and together they make the perfect cop.”

Reading between the lines, it seems the hare-brained scheme was to cast Reynolds and Jackman in the fake movie, maintain the appearance of this ruse for the entirety of production, and then secretly film (and release) “Deadpool & Wolverine” when nobody was expecting it. As he went on to note:

“It was meant to be kind of horrible. Like 10 people in America would go to see this movie on opening weekend and five minutes into the movie, the Marvel logo would flip up and it would actually be ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’ The problem is that if you managed to get down to the last minute and it got blown, it would just be heartbreaking.”

If it feels ridiculous to picture Marvel actually approving of an unprecedented deception on this scale for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” well, that’s probably because it is. There have obviously been cases where mass misdirection campaigns to maintain the secrecy of a movie have worked to perfection. The “Cloverfield” movies are a quintessential example of this, while it’s fun to dream of how the initial plan for Dan Trachtenberg’s “Prey” seemed to involve a marketing strategy in which the Predator reveal was held back entirely. But would anyone in the real world genuinely have risked this for the record-breaking box-office sensation “Deadpool & Wolverine” is already set to become?

The answer is almost certainly not. As Reynolds himself admitted, only a mere fraction of moviegoers would’ve ever turned out to see a cheesy-looking, B-movie farce like he describes “Alpha Cop” to be — even if Disney poured all its marketing might into the film. While it would’ve been the shock of a lifetime for those in attendance on opening night to suddenly realize they were watching “Deadpool & Wolverine” and then take to social media to inform everyone else of what they were missing out on, the tradeoff of literally millions of dollars of revenue for a brief moment of buzz wouldn’t have been worth it. In fact, Marvel actually just pulled off a very similar stunt by packing in hordes of fans into Hall H during the ongoing Comic-Con festivities, trotting out several spoilery cast members, and then screening the entire film for convention attendees.

In the end, Marvel managed to have its cake and eat it, too — even if this what-if story will always be fun to think about.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters.