Deadpool and Wolverine opens in theaters today, and with the film, Deadpool officially becomes part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the biggest movie franchise in the world. It’s an impressive run considering that there was a time when there was never going to be a Deadpool movie. Had it not been for test footage being leaked, we wouldn’t be here today. Even the head of Marvel Studios still doesn’t know what happened, but he’s glad it did.
Nobody has ever taken credit for the test footage that was leaked online that gave fans a taste of what a Deadpool movie could be. When it happened, fans were instantly interested in seeing more, which ended up getting the first movie greenlighted. CinemaBlend’s own Sean O’Connell asked Kevin Feige if he has since learned what happened, and it turns out even he is in the dark. Feige said…
I saw that footage and experienced that as you did, just as an outsider, and as a fan looking at it. And I still don’t know the true story of it, by the way, , I’ve asked Ryan, he doesn’t really tell me no . Um, but it was, uh, uh, if it was a masterful play, then it was masterful. And I’m glad they did it. ’cause as you say, here we are.
Ryan Reynolds has always been the prime suspect in the footage leak. Deadpool was his passion project, a movie he desperately wanted to get made, so nobody would be shocked if it turned out he did it as a last ditch effort to make the movie happen. Having said that, Reynolds has never admitted to being the guilty party, though, as Feige says here, he’s never denied it either.
While Feige claims he doesn’t know, it sounds like he could find out. Deadpool comic artist Rob Liefeld claims that people within the Fox Studio knew the truth at the time, and simply weren’t talking about it.
There’s little argument that the leaked footage had a major impact on the film. The fact that so many people were so excited by it showed the studio there would be an audience for Deadpool, just the way we were seeing it online. The scene in the test footage would end up in the final cut of the film almost exactly as it was originally created.
Considering we’ve gone this long without anybody admitting to being the culprit, we may never know the truth. But maybe someday we’ll find out what happened since it’s not like anybody is going to get in trouble. If people at Fox really did know, they clearly didn’t care, and if they didn’t know, Fox doesn’t even exist anymore, so it’s not like anybody is left to punish Reynolds… I mean, whoever leaked the footage.