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Credit: Marvel Studios

For nearly a decade, the world of comic book movies had one lingering mystery: who leaked the Deadpool test footage that launched the franchise? It stumped even Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. Now, the franchise’s star, Ryan Reynolds, has confirmed what fans long suspected—he leaked the video in 2014, a move that kick-started one of the unlikeliest superhero movie franchises in modern film history, paving the way for the Merc with a Mouth to join the MCU officially. And Reynolds’ explanation was worth the wait.

Reynolds made the admission during TIFF’s “In Conversation With…” series, via Entertainment Weekly. He framed the leak as a calculated risk that changed the character’s fate, and his own. As he put it:

Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in. And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.

The Golden Globe–nominated star walked through the impasse that preceded the leak. Director Tim Miller’s proof-of-concept footage had been sitting on a shelf while the studio balked at backing an R-rated comic-book movie headlined by a relatively niche antihero. Reynolds loved the character’s self-aware, fourth-wall-breaking voice and believed the footage showed exactly how it could work on a bigger canvas. As he recalled:

I’d shot test footage for it a couple years before, and the studio just didn’t want anything to do with it. … And Deadpool’s a fringe character. People didn’t really know who he was, and I loved him. I was obsessed with it because I loved that he knew he was in a comic book movie. It was kind of meta, it was kind of new. But the test footage existed, and it really was a case study of how this could work. And they just wouldn’t do anything with it.

So the Canadian-born actor did what his red spandex-wearing alter ego might do, and he took matters into his own hands. With trademark mischief, he described the moment the footage hit the internet:

Some asshole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth. And I’m like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law!’ But the internet forced the studio to say, ‘We’re gonna make this movie,’ and 24 hours later, that movie had a green light.

The risk, however, paid off fast. The online response was electric, and the studio pivoted. Within a day, Deadpool had a green light. And the rest, as they say, is history, as the story of the foul-mouthed antihero’s road to the big screen became modern superhero lore. Quite frankly, this is a story I’ve wanted to hear for a while, and it does not disappoint.

Credit: Marvel Studios

Released in 2016, the first movie starring the katana-wielding wisecracker turned a modest budget into a runaway smash, earning over $780 million worldwide on roughly $58 million in production costs, a resounding proof that an R-rated, meta-comedy-meets-mayhem superhero could connect with a massive audience. Its success reoriented the X-Men universe, birthed a blockbuster sub-brand and cleared space for R-rated comic-book storytelling at scale.

The Deadpool franchise is available on Disney+, so fans should head on over to experience his bloody, hilarious and profane exploits. The streamer’s ad-supported plan starts at $9.99 a month. There’s also the ad-free option, for which you can pay $15.99 a month. Also, save 16% by pre-paying $159.99 for a year.View Deal

The franchise only grew from there. Deadpool 2 in 2018 inched past the original’s global haul, and Deadpool & Wolverine (available to stream with a Disney+ subscription) now stands as the highest-grossing R-rated film ever worldwide, with a $1.338 billion tally, which only stands as validation that the once “fringe” character is now box-office royalty.

Ryan Reynolds teased his involvement for years without fully owning up to it, joking he was “70 percent sure” he wasn’t the leaker, celebrating the “Leak-iversary” on social, and telling a Vanity Fair lie detector he might have “provided an assist.” Friday’s TIFF remarks finally closed the loop. More than a decade later, thanks to the Free Guy star’s gamble, we’re debating whether the chimichanga connoisseur could crash the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, a conversation that couldn’t exist without the infamous test footage leak.