Ryan Reynolds Pitched A Deadpool Crossover With A Classic Disney Movie
Disney turned down one of Ryan Reynolds' recent crossover pitches. Here's what he wanted to do.
This article is more than 2 years old
On both the big screen and in the source material, the ultraviolent Marvel hero Deadpool has done some truly messed up things. According to a new interview, Ryan Reynolds recently tried to up the ante by proposing a crossover between the Merc With a Mouth and the 1942 Disney classic Bambi.
Just in case you somehow don’t already know about Deadpool’s official entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe — three weeks ago Ryan Reynolds appeared as Deadpool in an ad for his upcoming sci-fi action comedy Free Guy alongside the rocky-skinned Korg (Taika Waititi) who first appeared in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. According to an interview with IGN, it was Reynolds who pitched the ad, but it wasn’t his first pitch.
Ryan Reynolds told the site that in his first pitch to Disney, he wanted Deadpool to meet a very specific character from Bambi, and not the titular deer, the rabbit Thumper, or any other animals. “I wanted to do a short film of Deadpool interrogating the hunter who killed Bambi’s mom,” Reynolds told IGN. Before you start guessing, Reynolds said the intent wouldn’t have been for Deadpool to threaten, maim, kill, or to otherwise abuse the hated villain, but to applaud him. He said the film would reveal that Deadpool is “just a huge fan” of the hunter — in particular, admiring his status as “the most loathed Disney character” in history. Reynolds added that Disney, predictably, gave him a big, white-gloved thumbs down.
This is not the first time the Deadpool actor has pitched some wild ideas for the Marvel hero he’s made a household name. As /Film reported, in August 2018 Ryan Reynolds appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and revealed his original pitch for Deadpool 2 which — while perhaps not as emotionally triggering as his Bambi idea — was equally strange. He told the host he pitched to Fox that the entirety of Deadpool 2 should be about Wade Wilson “trying to steal the big, red chair from The Voice.” In the actor’s words, the studio responded with, “That’s just the dumbest thing ever.”
Last June something even crazier made its way around the web courtesy of self-styled Marvel insider Roger Wardell. As reported by Movie Web, Wardell tweeted that in 2019 Ryan Reynolds pitched a Deadpool Kills the Fox-Marvel Universe film in which the Merc With a Mouth would presumably kill off all the surviving heroes and villains from the X-Men and Fantastic Four film series to make way for the properties’ entrance into the MCU. Wardell also claimed Michael Bay was actually “in talks” to direct.
The report has never been confirmed, though considering the other wild pitches Ryan Reynolds has made, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility. The fact that there actually have been similarly themed non-canonical comic book miniseries — 2012’s Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe and 2017’s Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again — both written by Cullen Bunn with art by Dalibor Talajic, could lend credence to the rumor.
There is reportedly another Ryan Reynolds pitch that is still up in the air. After Deadpool’s Free Guy spot with Korg was released, rumors began circulating that Reynolds wants the Kronan to make an appearance in the upcoming Deadpool 3. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not Disney proves more amenable to that idea than to some of the actor’s other pitches.
