‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Was Almost an Intentionally Terrible Movie

Deadpool & Wolverine is filled with prankish humor. But the movie was originally planned to be maybe the biggest prank in movie history.

During a recent appearance on Hot Ones, Deadpool & Wolverine star/writer/producer Ryan Reynolds revealed that the “original idea” for the movie was to make Deadpool & Wolverine totally in secret — and to instead release a “fake movie” called Alpha Cop that was “intentionally bad.”

“I even had one of the posters made. It was about two guys who were sharing one brain and together they make the ultimate cop,” Reynolds explained.

The (fake) film’s tagline: “Two cops, one brain, all balls.”

The plan, according to Reynolds, was to release Alpha Cop and have it intentionally flop — talk about a bold strategy, Cotton. Reynolds continued…

Ten people would go to see this movie on opening weekend, and five minutes into the movie the Marvel logo flip and it would actually be Deadpool & Wolverine.

Jackman, who did not seem aware of this idea at all replied “Damn. That’s so cool.”

READ MORE: Every Marvel Movie Ever Made, Ranked From Worst to Best

It would be cool, and probably not especially feasible. As soon as one person somewhere involved on some level leaks that information, the whole jig is up. If the caterer tells someone and they blab about it on Facebook, the entire world knows. But then … you make a massive blockbuster that grosses tons of money? So maybe it’s not such a bad plan after all.

Marvel certainly did do a good job preserving a lot of the surprises in Deadpool & Wolverine (which I will not spoil here). And they essentially rewrote the rules of movie surprises when they snuck Samuel L. Jackson into the closing credits of Iron Man as Nick Fury. If you could pull that off, why not a whole fake movie? I guess now the reason not to do it is Ryan Reynolds totally just gave the whole scam away on Hot Ones. But maybe in a few years he can make Omega Cop or something instead.

You can watch Reynolds and Jackman’s full appearance on Hot Ones below. This specific question occurs around the eight minute mark.