Ryan Reynolds has teased the return of the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool, with a cryptic photo. The X-Men Origins: Wolverine star (sorry, Ryan) shared a picture to his Instagram story showing Deadpool’s iconic red and black mask stuffed into a travel bag. However, Ryan didn’t bother to include a caption on the post, leaving fans baffled as to what the picture meant.
The obvious guess would, of course, be that he’s starting work (or filming) on Deadpool 3, but that can’t be the case. Marvel big cheese Kevin Feige confirmed earlier this year that shooting wouldn’t begin on the regenerating degenerate’s third film until 2022 at the earliest. He did add that writing has already started on the project, with Emmy-winning writers Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin and Wendy Molyneux, of Bob’s Burger’s fame, being tapped to write the script.
It’s possible, considering he helped pen Deadpool 2, that Ryan was simply heading to the writer’s room to help out Lizzie and Wendy and brought the mask along for inspiration. Let’s be honest, though, there’s a far more obvious explanation for the photo, which considering who we’re talking about here, makes the most sense to us. Ryan is trolling us.
#Deadpool 3: Ryan Reynolds Shares Cryptic Photo of Marvel Superhero Mask (via IG:vancityreynolds) pic.twitter.com/LSBnEKd1Tb
— Big Screen Leaks (@bigscreenleaks) June 6, 2021
Trolling or not, we’re interested to see where Disney and Marvel Studios take Deadpool. The series was a financial juggernaut (pun intended) for Fox, raking in an eye-watering £1.5 billion across both movies. Since then Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, which means Wade will now be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This begs the question of how the R-rated antihero will fit in with the more family-friendly denizens of the MCU? Kevin Feige has promised it will maintain its more adult tone, telling Collider: “It will be rated R and we are working on a script right now, and Ryan’s overseeing a script right now… Again, a very different type of character in the MCU, and Ryan is a force of nature, which is just awesome to see him bring that character to life.”
Realistically Feige and the team have plenty of time to work out how Deadpool fits into the MCU. However, if filming isn’t set to begin on Deadpool 3 until next year, then we probably won’t be seeing Ryan back in red spandex until at least 2023. Thankfully with Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and The Eternals on the way this year (not to mention Spider-Man: No Way Home), there’s plenty of Marvel movie fun on the way.
Deadpool 3 has yet to receive a release date from Marvel Studios.
Want want to brush up on the chronology of Marvel’s mutants? Then you need our guide on how to watch the X-Men movies in order.