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:
