Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

At yesterday’s press event for the upcoming Ryan Reynolds film, Adventureland, the folks from Latino Review and Collider took advantage of the opportunity to ask about the Canadian star's curious role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Both sites posed similar questions in their meetings with Reynolds and the major common thread was about a potential Deadpool spinoff movie of which we’ve heard rumblings about ever since Ryan was attached for the part, even before the studio (Fox) had the rights to the character.

Reynold's response to Latino Review's question of if he’d be interested in a solo film:

"Ya, I love the character. I've always loved the character. I remember reading one of the Deadpool comic books, and somebody asked Deadpool what he looks like. And he said he looks like a cross between a Shar-Pei and Ryan Reynolds. And I was like, I really, really wanna play this guy at some point. I thought it was pretty cool. It's a guy that knows he's in a comic book. How hard is it to shoot that properly? That's not something they put in Wolverine nor would it belong in that universe."

Collider asked about him being contacted about doing a spinoff for Deadpool:

"I’ve had a couple of people approach me about meetings for a “Deadpool” movie but I think it’s absurd to think that way until this movie comes out. And I don’t even look at it like I play Deadpool in this movie. I really think I more or less play Wade Wilson, and I’m playing the creature that will eventually become Deadpool but in this movie it’s his newly formed version….so to speak."

Of course the fanboy question of whether or not he’ll wear the mask came up and Ryan replied:

"I'm not gonna answer that."

But it doesn’t end there, later in the Latino Review interview a member of AICN asked Reynolds if the reason he wears the mask explained in the film.

Ya, ya. Well, it's an origin story, so again I don't consider myself playing Deadpool. I'm the thing that will eventually become Deadpool. But ya, he's scarred up. You're gonna see the scars. That's all in there.

Some of the other questions included how it was like being on set and working with Hugh Jackman and other major players of the cast – To which he replied he loved it, especially compared to the dysfunctional set of Blade Trinity. Another question was about the extent of his role in the film. Ryan said it was initially a cameo as he had two other movies he was part of already, but the later “re-shoots” for Wolverine we heard about in January were actually to add many of his scenes, including a big sword-fighting sequence where he does his own stunts.

These interviews clear up some of the Deadpool worries we had from what we saw in the trailers and the toy images, but just barely. We still don’t know if the reported Weapon XI character from the trailers is actually him. We’ve heard some rumors that it is and that something happens during the film to revert his character back to the Deadpool fans recognize from the comics (i.e. without the laser eyes and wrist blades). In one of the interviews, Reynolds partly distances himself from his interpretation of the character to what Fox says the character is.

The recently updated IMDB description for the Weapon XI character X-Men Origins: Wolverine currently reads (at the time of this publication) that Wade Wilson is indeed Weapon XI, and that after the strange transformation he is (mostly) played by Scott Adkins for the action-heavy scenes. Perhaps Reynolds means Fox thinks this character loaded with extra superpowers is Deadpool where he himself heops to become Deadpool after all of the experiments. Obviously, what's been advertised is a far cry from who and what Deadpool is in the comics.

What do you think?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens May 1, 2009.

Sources: Latino Review, Collider