Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds (birthname: Ryan Rodney Reynolds) has emerged as one of the biggest and most reliable box office stars, in an era when the force of star power has been greatly diminished. Virtually the only actor who has played leads in both Marvel Comics Universe and DC Comics movie franchises, Reynolds achieved global star status in 2016 as the title character (and his human counterpart, Wade Wilson) in the Deadpool series, the first superhero franchise released with an R rating.

Both the first and the follow-up, Deadpool 2 (2018), broke earnings records for an R-rated feature, for a combined worldwide cume of $1.5 billion. Unlike several other Marvel and DC stars unable to transfer their box office impact to non-superhero projects, Reynolds scored a great success with Free Guy (2021), which earned over $330 million worldwide, followed by The Adam Project, one of Netflix’s hit feature releases in 2022.

This indicates that Reynolds is able to sustain durable star status in an extremely volatile and unpredictable environment for lead actors. Part of Reynolds’s strategy is—despite Deadpool’s distinctly adult profile—to work alongside child actors in family-friendly vehicles. These include his vocal appearances in the animated features The Croods (2013), The Croods 2: A New Age (2020), Turbo (2013), and Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019), and continue with The Adam Project, Spirited (2022, a remake of A Christmas Carol in which Reynolds plays Ebeneezer Scrooge), and the kid-friendly action film Everyday Parenting Tips (planned for 2023).

Reynolds’s career began with little promise or indication of his future stardom. His lead role in the Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991-1993) led to only minor roles, though he did gain some fame in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002), which has cult status in Europe. His first significant dramatic role was as a man buried alive in Buried (2010), but an early sign of his future superhero identity emerged in both Blade: Trinity (2004) and Green Lantern (2011). 

Ryan Reynolds first appeared as Wade Wilson’s character (whose alter-ego was actually named Weapon XI), not in Deadpool itself, but in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), his first project in the superhero comic business dominated by MCU and DC Comics. His interest in Deadpool predated even this, as he discussed developing the character into a feature as early as 2005 with screenwriter David S. Goyer.

But his first foray into a lead superhero role, in The Green Lantern (2011), proved a commercial failure. 2016 was his breakthrough year, with Deadpool, and he wasted no time diversifying his business profile to an unusual degree for a movie star. In 2018, he launched his production company, Maximum Effort, plus ownership holding in Aviation American Gin, which was sold in 2020 to British alcohol and beverage firm Diageo. He also bought a 25% ownership stake in mobile company Mint Mobile in 2019, followed by the purchase (with actor Rob McElhenney) of Welsh football club Wrexham AFC.     

Reynolds has re-teamed with his Deadpool director, Shawn Levy, for the hit Netflix release, The Adam Project (2022). He is set to co-star with writer-director John Krasinski in Krasinki’s comic fantasy Imaginary Friends (2023) and is adding screenwriting to his skill set as co-writer of the upcoming Deadpool 3.