Ryan Reynolds might be an A-list movie star, but he’s also gaining a burgeoning reputation as one of the marketing industry’s shining lights. The actor’s Maximum Effort company has created a series of viral ads with their fingers on the pulse of popular culture, leading to him being crowned as Adweek’s Brand Visionary of 2020, as well as finding himself on the shortlist to name 2019’s B2C Content Marketer of the Year.
He sits on the board of directors at Match Group, with Maximum Effort creating the memorable Satan vs. 2020 spot, while he roped in Rick Moranis for a rare live-action appearance to shill his Mint Mobile service, and the long-running feud between Reynolds and Hugh Jackman has been used to both raise money for good causes and promote their respective Aviation Gin and Laughing Man Coffee brands.
Reynolds’ latest ingenious marketing tactic saw him leverage fan support behind him playing Johnny Cage in a Mortal Kombat sequel to celebrate Mint being named as 2021’s best cellphone plan, and it worked a treat by generating plenty of buzz on social media. Leading man Lewis Tan also caught wind of it, and fully supported the idea of his Deadpool 2 co-star tackling the role, which you can see below.
This time I jumped out the plane and survived. 😑 #MortalKombatMovie https://t.co/vlbroSn8KP
— Lewis Tan (@TheLewisTan) April 28, 2021
Tan’s Shatterstar hardly got much time to shine in the Merc with a Mouth’s sequel before meeting a grisly demise, so you can understand why Mortal Kombat‘s Cole Young would be more than happy to team up again. It’s seems very unlikely that the second installment could even afford Reynolds, though, with Simon McQuoid’s martial arts actioner costing $55 million to make, and the A-list star regularly pocketing upwards of $20 million each time he signs on to play a major role in a project.
