In the past few years, Ryan Reynolds has transformed himself from just another handsome guy in mediocre romantic comedies, to one of the most bankable actors working today.
It seems that Reynolds now has a tighter grip on the action comedy genre more than ever before, a fact which is emerging not only in his onscreen roles but through his celebrity presence, too. He has been able to transform his career in such a dramatic fashion because he is one of only a few actors demonstrating real self-awareness at a time when many others are not. Reynolds knows what we think of him, and uses this to make fun of himself. This is the key to his success, and as he has done it more and more over time, the patterns of his comedy style have become more noticeable and—as a result—more predictable. With the recent announcement of Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine for the upcoming Deadpool 3, Reynolds is tapping into potentially his most well-known bit; his interplay with Jackman.
For a long time, Ryan Reynolds was known as an actor who appeared in comedies and action films. Most of them are fine, and some of them are downright bad (looking at you R.I.P.D). Reynolds has always been an inoffensive presence in any film he has been in. Even when the film is bad, he always managed to escape too much damage to his career mainly because audiences enjoyed his charm. The turning point came for Reynolds when he started becoming more of an offensive presence, but in a way that felt deliberately self-conscientious at a time when Hollywood felt alarmingly lacking in awareness. The rise in self-awareness in Hollywood has felt more pronounced in the last decade or so, but resulted in films that almost felt too absurdist to be taken seriously. As Hollywood wanted to show audiences that it knew how to poke fun at itself, it came across as them trying too hard, resulting in some mediocre or at best average movie outings. Look no further than the number of parodies released around the early 2010s that came out to poor reception, such as The Expendables, Piranha 3DD, and Vampires Suck. Reynolds improves on this because he makes it look easy, whereas Hollywood’s brand of self-aware humour made them look out of touch
This evolved with the subsequent release of Deadpool 2, and helped Reynolds discover the key to his comedic success; having someone to play off of. Reynolds’ style works best when he has someone that can also make fun of him, instead of him doing it all to himself. Without that comedic partner, it felt like Reynolds was shouting his jokes into a void. As such, Josh Brolin became an important part of Deadpool 2’s success, partly because his role in the film’s marketing campaign gave Reynolds a worthy comedic counterpart when his humour was starting to become a bit stale. The following year, and in similar fashion, Reynolds’ camaraderie with The Rock in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw made his supporting role all the more memorable.
Now, there is the announcement of Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine for Deadpool 3. For many fans, this is great news. With the superhero landscape more saturated than ever, the proper team-up of Deadpool and Wolverine seems like one of the main things left to do on the big screen. However, it is also a big risk for both Reynolds and Jackman. The two have an established repertoire back and forth over many years, and Reynolds’ first turn as Deadpool in the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine is still tied with Green Lantern for his biggest source of self-referential comedy. That being said, bringing Jackman back feels gimmicky given how excellent his swansong in Logan is. This could well be Reynolds beginning to run out of comedic gold to mine.
The news that Deadpool 3 has been pushed back seems like a sign that such a lofty project needs to be treated as such. At this stage, it is a delay of just over two months, but already it feels like the exciting announcement that set the internet ablaze a couple of weeks ago, has come crashing back down to reality. There is no need to panic that suddenly Deadpool 3 will be a disappointment based solely on this short delay. However, it does evidence that it is already caught up in a myriad of expectations that could work against it.
It has always felt like Reynolds’ best work has come when expectations have been low. When Deadpool came out six years ago, its success proved to be a surprise to practically everyone. Since then, as Reynolds’ popularity has skyrocketed, and more eyes have fallen on his projects, he has found more mixed successes. Reynolds has appeared in a lot of films over the past few years, and his mere presence in them has inflated expectations for films that are never going to be groundbreaking for the comedy or action genres. People expect a lot from Reynolds, and this delay should show that expectations might already be too big for any one project to manage.
It feels like Reynolds is jumping the shark with Deadpool 3. Fans have been begging for a Wolverine and Deadpool team-up, but after this is done, where does Reynolds go from here? He is going backwards instead of doing anything new, at precisely the time when his career momentum could allow him to do something unexpected (there is still time of course). Reynolds has built a career by being able to make fun of his failings, but if Deadpool 3 is not well received there is a chance that Reynolds’ humour will not be enough to make up for such a disappointment in the eyes of the fans. Both Reynolds and Jackman are taking a big risk. If it pays off, there will be nothing to touch Reynolds for many years to come. If it does not pay off, it could very well be too much for even his seemingly impeachable brand of snarky wit to come back from.
Words by James Evenden
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