This past weekend very much belonged to Avengers: Infinity War.
Buoyed by good-to-stellar reviews (including our own), the Marvel epic opened to an eye-watering $630 million worldwide, and it’s that record-shattering figure that has helped push the MCU’s tally beyond $15 billion. Not bad for a franchise that began life with a B-list superhero (read: Iron Man) opening under the shadow of The Dark Knight.
And now, 10 years and 19 movies later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the industry’s biggest export of carefully crafted comic book movies – a status Kevin Feige hopes to maintain until at least 2025, it seems.
All of this has prompted Ryan Reynolds to honor Infinity War‘s meteoric success via Twitter. Over the weekend, the fan-favorite Deadpool actor shared a rejection letter from Tony Stark dating all the way back to April 14th of 2012 – the year in which Joss Whedon launched The Avengers and changed superhero filmmaking forevermore.
It’s by no means the first time that the Merc With a Mouth has poked fun at the MCU (“I’ll do it myself!”), nor is it likely to be the last, particularly when you consider that Thanos actor Josh Brolin has also signed on to play futuristic freedom fighter Nathan Summers (AKA Cable) in next month’s Deadpool 2.
Anyways, here’s a little taster, straight from Ryan Renolds himself:
From a guy who never knows when to quit, I’m glad you guys never did. Congrats #Avengers. pic.twitter.com/voJshTKx5E
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) April 29, 2018
And the rest is history. Indeed, this in-joke of Deadpool rubbing shoulders with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has taken on a life of its own now that Disney is on the verge of acquiring 20th Century Fox and its entertainment assets. Such a merger would redraw the lines of Hollywood, and will, through time, allow the Merc and his fellow X-Men to cross over into the MCU a la Spider-Man. And how exciting is that?
Closer to home, Avengers: Infinity War is now playing across the globe, while Deadpool 2 has been scheduled for release on May 18th.
