Deadpool's actor, Ryan Reynolds, and Spider-Man's portrayer, Andrew Garfield, express interest in reprising their roles.
Deadpool's actor, Ryan Reynolds, and Spider-Man's portrayer, Andrew Garfield, express interest in reprising their roles.
In Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, somebody had an amazing idea by pairing Ryan Reynolds and Andrew Garfield for a Spideypool meet-cute. The two discussed putting on superhero suits and what it would take to reprise their roles as Deadpool and Spider-Man for future Marvel Studios projects, and you might be shocked by their responses.
When Garfield asked Reynolds about the evolution of the Deadpool suit and how it influenced his performance, Reynolds explained how its challenges shaped his character work. “The suits are tough,” Reynolds admitted. “But to me, they’re liberating. It’s like I’m doing stand-up comedy. I need to rely on my voice or micro expressions. I use my body for more macro ones.” He drew inspiration from comedians like Jack Benny, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and Marcel Marceau.
And the suit is more than just a costume for Deadpool. “Preparing for the suit is difficult,” Reynolds said. “I have a different perspective on suits. There’s always a reason. Deadpool wears the suit because he’s in a militarized guilt spiral, and his coping mechanism is humor. The suits are essential. It’s old-school comedy for me.”
The conversation transitioned to their recent appearances as the characters, with Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine and Garfield as the variant Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Reynolds mentioned a possible Deadpool return by saying, “My opinion is that the character works well in two ways. First, it’s scarcity and surprise. It’s been six years since the last one, and part of the reason is that it consumes my entire life. I don’t know what the future of Deadpool is. Shawn [Levy] and I made the movie to have a beginning, middle, and end, and I love that. It’s important sometimes to make space for a movie to just be a movie.”
“The other reason is that I see Deadpool as a supporting character more than a main one. We highlight him sometimes because that’s what they want. You can’t highlight someone unless you take everything away from them. You need to create a situation where he’s the underdog. I don’t think I can do that again. So if Deadpool comes back, it will be in someone else’s movie, like Channing Tatum’s Gambit.”
The interview was essentially a chemistry test—we can’t help but wish they had a rom-com storyline, even if it was just for a flirty Spideypool scene—and they passed with flying colors.
Reynolds praised Garfield for his dramatic works and his role in No Way Home. “You guys in that movie did it in such a way that people cried. Everyone burst into tears because you have all that cultural currency and cachet,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds compared the multiple Spider-Men scenes to when people saw Wesley Snipes’ Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine. “What’s happening is that they realize in an instant without maybe intellectualizing it exactly, but they desperately missed this person, but they didn’t know they missed him. When you get something like that, those moments when you’re back in the Spidey suit and you get this chance to do something you didn’t do before, it’s the best feeling in the world. Did you miss playing Spider-Man? When you came back to that, how did that feel?”
Garfield answered, “Amazing. It was just gratifying. It was like you’re invited to a party and then it ends prematurely, and then you’re like, I got to reckon with being disinvited from this party. And that’s when the work happens. And that’s when you start to deal with your own stuff.”
“It was like a few years of that, and I’m so grateful for it in retrospect. And even during, I was like, yeah, this is soul work. One of the first photos of me is in a Spider-Man costume that my mother made out of felt. So it’s primal. I felt like, ‘Oh my God, this person, this character means so much to me.’”
For Garfield, interacting with other Spidey kin was particularly powerful. “Coming back was like being re-welcomed into the party. It could finally be a party.”
Garfield also agreed with Reynolds’ point about Deadpool being a supporting character if future outings come to pass. “There was something soothing about it being a playpen for me and Tobey Maguire, Tom Holland. The pressure was on Tom. It was a beautiful thing to genuinely feel like you were supporting a Spider-brother, and I mean that sincerely. We have an opportunity that no one’s ever had, where it’s like a Spider-Man support group. What does that look like? What’s the dynamic that we could build that’s completely specific and unique to these particular Spider people?”
Watch the full interview below, and keep your fingers crossed that one day this duo will team up for a Spideypool project.
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In discussing their roles and potential future projects, Reynolds mentioned the challenge of reprising Deadpool and the importance of scarcity and surprise for the character. He also expressed his view that Deadpool can be a supporting character in other films, such as Channing Tatum's Gambit. (technology, future)
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