Ryan Reynolds’ dry-run for ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is nipping at the heels of Jared Leto and Harrison Ford to take out a hit on streaming

After a faintly terrible 2023, Marvel is sure hoping this summer’s superhero tentpole release, Deadpool & Wolverine, draws in big crowds come July. Thankfully, Ryan Reynolds‘ continued popularity on streaming indicates that things are on the right track.

It’s somehow been a full six years since we last saw Reynolds suit up as Wade Wilson in 2018’s Deadpool 2, but the Canadian superstar definitely hasn’t been idle in that time, appearing in a stream of never-ending procession of high-profile projects, not to mention buying a soccer club and expanding his family with wife Blake Lively with the addition of two more kids, born in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

Thanks to our constant exposure to Reynolds, his star has never waned in the years since Fox went kaput, as attested to by the fact a movie of his that could be considered a dry-run for Deadpool 3 is shooting up the streaming charts at a murderous speed.

The last time Ryan Reynolds teamed up with multiple Marvel stars is coming for Captain America 4 and Morbius alums on streaming

Perhaps the biggest appeal about Deadpool & Wolverine is that it will allow Reynolds’ Merc with the Mouth to play in the wider Marvel sandbox for the first time, not just teaming up with Hugh Jackman but a roll call of familiar cameos. To check out the first time Reynolds shared the screen with what seems like half the MCU, however, go watch The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

The 2017 action comedy sees Reynolds as a disgraced former CIA agent who now works as a bodyguard being hired to protect a world-renowned hit man (the one and only Nick Fury himself, Samuel L. Jackson) who’s set to testify against a cruel Eastern-European dictator (Gary Oldman — not a Marvel alum yet, but it’s bound to happen sometime), on the condition that his wife (Eternals star Salma Hayek) be freed from jail.

And the Marvel crossovers don’t stop with just Jackson and Hayek either. Classic Loki Richard E. Grant is also on board in a supporting role. As is, not Jennifer Garner — who’s set for a cameo in Deadpool 3 — but her fellow Elektra Natchios actress, Elodie Yung.

Although it suffered from mixed reviews, the fact Hitman’s Bodyguard spawned a sequel in 2021 — The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Wife, reuniting Reynolds, Jackson, and Hayek — shows you how popular it was with audiences. As does the fact it’s currently just jumped up eight places on the streaming charts to enter the top 10 most popular Apple TV Plus titles in the United States.

This means that it’s nipping at the heels of Blade Runner 2049, starring Reynolds’ fellow Hollywood Ryan, Ryan Gosling, Morbius veteran Jared Leto, and Captain America: Brave New World‘s own Harrison Ford. This is definitely making us crave a Deadpool vs. Red Hulk showdown in Secret Wars or Deadpool 4.