Country music legend Kenny Rogers recently passed away at the age of 81, leaving behind a legacy of hits after recording countless classics over a 65-album career, selling over 165 million records in the process. The singer’s best-known song is arguably “The Gambler,” and following his death, it turns out that the 1978 single, one of the most instantly-recognizable songs of all time, almost founds its way into the most unexpected of places.
Paying tribute to Rogers on social media, Ryan Reynolds revealed that in an early version of Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth was set to sing “The Gambler” while throwing down with Ed Skrein’s Ajax, and he even went so far as to record the dialogue from the comfort of his couch during post-production as the visual effects were being finished.
Given Deadpool’s nature as a foul-mouthed, fourth wall-breaking superhero that retains a huge amount of self-awareness, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that he’d be keen on the idea of singing country music while putting a beatdown on his arch-nemesis. Even though the original plan failed to make it into the theatrical cut, or even the DVD extras, you can check out Reynolds’ tribute to Kenny Rogers below.
Rogers was no stranger to acting himself, of course, having appeared in many movies and TV shows over the years, including five made-for-TV Westerns based on “The Gambler” where he played the title character. However, we’ll sadly never get to find out how he would have reacted to the idea of one of his most famous songs being sung by a spandex-clad superhero wielding katana swords, as Deadpool sliced and diced his way through a raft of disposal henchman during the action sequence in question.
