After a memorable—albeit for all the wrong reasons—cameo as Wade Wilson in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds finally suited up as a comic-accurate version of the Merc with a Mouth in 2016's Deadpool.
A sequel, Deadpool 2, followed two years later, but plans for a third movie (and X-Force) fell by the wayside when the Disney/Fox merger happened. In 2024, we got Deadpool & Wolverine, a $1.3 billion hit that left fans eager for more.
Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine are next expected to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There have also been reports that Reynolds is penning a team-up project for the Mutant Saga, potentially featuring Deadpool, Wolverine, Storm, and Cable.
During a recent interview with Collider, Reynolds was asked about his MCU future and replied, "Briefly, because I'm sure we don't have much time, I've talked to Marvel off and on, always. We have a really great relationship, you know? It's always a conversation. I'm always just looking to be additive and help on anything, even if it's not a movie I’m in."
"And I'm always writing. I mean, it's how I kind of get it out of my system. I love writing. That character and that world is one in which anything is possible, and that in and of itself allows for so much freedom and storytelling."
"I have a few things written that I love. I don’t know. We’ll figure out when the time is right. I’m not in any huge rush right now to do anything," Reynolds continued, sharing his take that "Deadpool works best on both scarcity and surprise, so jumping right back into it full on right now is probably something I’m not going to do."
"I gotta say, that Marvel team, those guys have been incredible, all of them, and I’m really, really lucky to have the opportunity to work with them the way I have, as intimately as I have," he concluded.
With the next Avengers movies likely to finally reveal why Thor was crying over the fallen Deadpool, where the character goes from there remains to be seen. Based on Reynolds' comments here, something is planned beyond that, but Marvel Studios will also need to figure out how the anti-hero fits into the wider Mutant Saga.
While X-Force feels like the natural next step, a project like that happening hinges on how Jake Schreier's X-Men reboot plays out. After all, if that movie features the "first class" of mutants, then it may be far too soon for the black ops squad to assemble.