Ryan Reynolds Still Hopes to Make His Canceled Deadpool Christmas Movie
A Deadpool Christmas movie starring Ryan Reynolds was written back in 2018, only to get lost in the shuffle when Disney acquired 21st Century Fox. Now, Reynolds has revived hopes that the scrapped holiday project could someday get made. Reynolds confirmed that he co-wrote a completed script for a Deadpool Christmas film a few years ago. But the project apparently fell by the wayside during Disney’s Fox acquisition, which brought the Deadpool franchise into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What was Ryan Reynolds’ full vision for a Deadpool holiday film?
Speaking with The Big Issue, according to Reynolds, the unmade Deadpool Christmas movie would have been a non-musical, feature-length adventure starring the wisecracking antihero.
“Four years ago, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and I wrote a Christmas movie starring Deadpool,” Reynolds told The Big Issue. “But it got lost in the shuffle of Disney acquiring Fox and it never got made.”
Details are scarce on the plot, but the irreverent comedic tone of Deadpool likely would have lent itself well to subverting Christmas tropes. Unfortunately, the script never got the green light for production. Ryan Reynolds didn’t expand on why exactly the Deadpool Christmas movie was scrapped amid Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s film assets in 2019.
It’s possible that the uncertainty surrounding Deadpool’s R-rated status during Disney’s merger led execs to shelve the holiday project. Or the screenplay simply didn’t align with Marvel Studios’ vision going forward. Either way, it seems the completed script failed to survive the transition to new leadership under Disney.
Could the Deadpool Christmas concept get revived someday?
Though the existing Deadpool holiday movie script remains unproduced for now, Reynolds seems optimistic the concept could still move forward one day.
“Maybe one day we’ll get to make that movie,” Reynolds teased. “It’s not a musical, but it’s a full Deadpool Christmas movie.”
Now that Deadpool 3 is on the way, introducing Wolverine into the MCU, Marvel Studios may be more open to investing in experimental Deadpool projects. Perhaps a revival of the Christmas caper is still possible.
After all, once upon a time, a Deadpool Christmas movie was ready to bring some R-rated yuletide chaos to theaters, until the winds of change buried it in development limbo. But if Reynolds gets his wish, fans may yet see his scrapped passion project get unleashed in all its festive, fourth-wall-breaking glory.
