Wade Wilson Defends Nickelback In Once Upon A Deadpool Promo

A couple of weeks ago, the first trailer for Once Upon a Deadpool saw co-star Fred Savage live up to his name with a brutal swipe at Fox, comparing the studio’s Marvel output to The Beatles produced by Nickelback (“It’s music, but it sucks”). But in an unusual turn of events, Ryan Reynolds has now shared the rest of the scene, in which the Merc with a Mouth responds to Savage’s putdown with a passionate defense – not of Fox, but of Nickelback.

In a video tweeted with the accompanying caption “Dec. 12th. #RespectTheBack,” we see the already familiar moment where the Princess Bride star makes it all too clear that he’s more of an MCU kind of guy, but what follows is less expected, as the music cuts out and Wade Wilson calls Savage out on his lack of respect for everyone’s favorite rock music punching bag:

“Okay, that’s it. I’m done. I’ve had it with all this Nickelback hating, alright? You think that makes you cool with the cool kids in school, Fred?”

Savage responds that hating Nickelback doesn’t make him cool, it just makes him right, arguing that the Canadian group create “over-produced, formulaic, ear garbage.” The criticism prompts Wade to school his captive co-star on the band’s credentials:

“Oh really? You know who might disagree with that? Facts. 50 million albums worldwide. 11th best selling musical act of all time. Billboard’s most successful rock group of the last decade. Six Grammy nominations. 12 Juno Awards – those count. Six Billboard Music Awards. Two American Music Awards. One People’s Choice Award (Canadian). And a partridge in a f*****g pear tree.”

What follows is a sincere apology from Savage while Wade remarks that the former child star was “nicer as a kid.” After a few seconds of awkward silence, Savage then makes things right by singing the opening line of “How You Remind Me,” prompting a rousing duet that ends this trailer on a surprisingly jubilant note.

If Wade can encourage a kidnapped Savage to see merit in Nickelback, then perhaps he can still win over some of his latest project’s detractors, with many fans still regarding a PG-13 re-release of Deadpool 2 as an act of sacrilege. Once Upon a Deadpool has already earned the praises of the Merc’s co-creator Rob Liefeld, but we’ll see how many more converts it can make when the film begins its two-week run in cinemas from December 12th.