Ryan Reynolds will always love Hugh.
The Hollywood funnyman has once again turned to his long-time Australian buddy Hugh Jackman for some inspiration, this time for the next instalment of Deadpool 3.
Although fans of the disfigured mercenary known as the “Merc with a Mouth” were waiting for Reynolds to appear at the San Diego Comic-Con and D23 Expo in July with some earth-shattering casting announcements, the man who loves social media banter waited until now.
Reynolds, 45, posted a video to his Instagram and Twitter accounts on Wednesday, saying he’d been “searching [his] soul” and reached down “deep inside” to make sure his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt “special” and “stands out”.
From the lounge room of an unidentified suburban house, Reynolds pondered the direction of his next film, and who would be cast.
“I have nothing,” Reynolds says, deadpan.
“But we did have one idea.”
In the background, Jackman walks out of the kitchen eating something. With perfect comic timing, Reynolds casually asks his mate, did he want to play Wolverine one more time?
“Yeah, sure, Ryan,” replies the singing-dancing star of the 2017 hit The Greatest Showman.
There’s a slight reaction from Reynolds – a smirk and raised eyebrows – but he lets the music do the talking.
Cue The Bodyguard theme I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston – or in this case, “I Will Always Love HUGH” – playing over the film’s new logo, which includes the signature Wolverine claw marks.
‘Faux-feud’ dates to 2009
There’s been serious rivalries on studio sets over the decades in La La Land.
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere, and Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, according to Cinemablend.
For Jackman and Reynolds, their “ribbing” began on the set of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But it was all just a bit of fun to entertain each other between scenes.
The pair then realised they had a clever, harmless banter.
Switched up into a truce, a war and a brotherly affair it has become a 13-year faux feud played out in interviews, in movies, and on social media.
In a 2020 interview with The Daily Beast, Jackman spoke about this “ongoing flame war”.
“It’s gone back so long now … God, this is a classic sign where your feud has gone too long, where you don’t even know why or how it started,” Jackman said.
“I met him back on Wolverine, and I used to ream [scold] him because I was very close friends with Scarlett [Johansson], and Scarlett had just married Ryan, so when he came on set I was like, ‘Hey, you better be on your best behaviour here … because I’m watching’.
“We started ribbing each other that way, and then it all escalated with the Deadpool thing and him calling me out, and trying to manipulate me through social media to do what he wanted.”
(Reynolds and Johansson split in 2011.)
In a 2015 prank during People‘s Sexiest Man Alive competition, Reynolds (2010 winner) did his best impersonation of Jackman (who’d won in 2008) to help him draw votes, or just to torment him.
A year later, Jackman wore a paper mask of Reynolds in a one-minute Twitter monologue after the “method actor” received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He questioned how Reynolds had done as well as he had – after failing drama class – and described his 2011 hit Green Lantern as the 12th best DC Comics movie.
By 2018, they were making fake political advertisements about each other off the back of Jackman’s portrayal of Senator Gary Hart in The Front Runner.
The banter kept going, and kept everyone amused during the pandemic.
There were a few ceasefires in between and then some clever marketing to springboard their “feud” to raise money for their respective charities (Laughing Man Foundation and SickKids Foundation).
The truce was short lived after Reynolds called Jackman a “fraud” and an “evil person” on Nine’s Today in late 2019.
“He’s just an evil person. I mean, you guys have all been duped. You think he’s this benevolent ambassador to your country.
“People don’t realise he’s from Winnipeg, Canada. … I’m so sorry. Truth hurts sometimes. It makes your eyes water. Hugh Jackman’s a fraud!”
Jackman then pretended there was another truce in their social media war before adding: “Ryan Reynolds is a complete and total f—.”
Then he had Wolverine revenge on his Instagram.
How their reunion will go when production starts is anyone’s guess, but with a September 2024 release date for the new Deadpool instalment, there’s plenty of time for plot development and future pranks.
It will mark Jackman’s first appearance as Wolverine since 2017 in Logan, in which the character died. But he’s got a super-fast ability to heal so that may open the show.
Following that, Deadpool writer Rhett Reese teased a few details in June, namely that it will be something of a “fish out of water” story for Reynolds’ Wade Wilson as he gets to meet some of his heroes and villains.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for fish out of water. Deadpool is a lunatic at the centre of a movie. To drop a lunatic into a very sane world, it’s straight butter. It’s going to be really fun.”
Pranks?
If it’s anything to go by, Jackman admitted to the Beast he sometimes spends hours preparing for a retaliatory strike.
“I try to limit it to five hours a day, planning retribution. I’ve found in the past that it just gets unhealthy if it’s more than five hours of obsessing over how to get Ryan Reynolds,” he said.
“But five hours is good and healthy and keeps me strong and ready.”
Brace for more social media updates – as Reynolds admitted: “Hard keeping my mouth sewn shut about this one.”
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