Who REALLY Leaked The Deadpool Movie Test Footage?

Who leaked the Deadpool test footage? That's the question that's hung over the big screen success of the '90s comics icon since a short clip of some concept footage leaked online and created such hysteria that, according to Ryan Reynolds, "Within twenty-four hours, we had a green light." The video, only a few minutes in length, was a CGI version of the highway action scene from the movie, in which Deadpool kills a bunch of a suited cronies in a gruesome high-speed sequence, complete with wise-cracking and fourth wall-breaking. Not only does he look the part in his signature red-and-black spandex but, crucially, actor Ryan Reynolds' delivery of the mercenary's acerbic humor was completely on-point, really bringing the character to life.

Ever since that footage went viral, the identity of the mystery leaker has been the topic of much discussion across the information super-highway. Not that anybody's complaining - quite the opposite. Fans just want to know where to send the thank-you cards for what's become one of the most-loved comic book movies. But whomever it was, they put their career on the line in the hopes of proving Deadpool was a film worth making.

If fans had rejected the footage, then Fox would've been made to look careless and it's likely some heads would've rolled behind-the-scenes in the search for the culprit. As it stands, everyone ended up making a lot of money instead, so Fox seems happy to let this one go... But that hasn't stopped us wondering.

This Page: The Leak, The Reaction, The Green Light
Page 2: Who Leaked Deadpool's Test Footage?

The Leaked Test Footage Is What Got Deadpool Made

Comic book movies are usually a very meticulous, studio-organized affair, and the way Deadpool came about was something that really threw the entire process for a loop. Ryan Reynolds, the star, had been trying to get a Deadpool solo flick green-lit for more than a decade, to no avail. Fox were interested in the character, putting a Deadpool spinoff into development after the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which Reynolds played a heavily altered and much-derided version of the Merc With A Mouth. However, Reynolds' leading man credentials took a substantial hit with 2011's Green Lantern for DC and Warner Bros., a critical and box office bomb, souring Fox on him shouldering another big superhero production.

Ever the true believer, Reynolds kept pushing behind-the-scenes, meeting with multiple possible directors before Tim Miller signed on to make the movie his directorial debut. Miller was a respected creator in Hollywood, his special effects company Blur Studio having produced work for several major releases. Together, he and Reynolds, along with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, made a CGI mock-up using one of the bigger set-pieces of exactly what they wanted to do with a Deadpool movie to show executives. Unfortunately, said executives were even less convinced than before - the fourth-wall-breaking humor and hardcore violence considered just too outlandish for a comic book movie. The footage sat on the shelf as Marvel Studios movies continued to break bank and Fox continued to toy with using Deadpool in some sort of bit-part for one of the X-Men movies.

Then came July 2014, when the CG-clip Reynolds et al had been holding onto found its way onto online video providers and swiftly became a viral sensation. Fans loved it – this was Deadpool exactly as he is on the page. And suddenly Fox's quiet refusal to give Wade Wilson a film became the topic of public outrage. Why had they been denying everyone two-hours of this joy? Did they really think something so offbeat wouldn't draw an audience?

A few weeks later, we learned that Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds had been given the go-ahead to make the gnarliest Deadpool movie they could, based on Reese and Wernick's script. Finally, it was on, and they had the fans and their guardian-leaker to thank. A smooth shoot, more than a few jabs at Fox's mishandling of the X-franchise to date and $738 million later, Deadpool's got an even bigger following that he's ever had with a sequel on the horizon.

And this was very likely always the plan.

Page 2: Who Leaked Deadpool's Test Footage?

The Leak Was (Probably) Deliberate

Sitting on this incarnation of the foul-mouthed hitman while watching the world clamor for as many comic book movies as they can consume had to be incredibly frustrating for Reynolds, Miller, Reese and Wernick. They knew they had a hit, but had no way of proving that to Fox. According to Reynolds and other insider sources, the leak had to be from one of those four, with Reynolds and Miller being the most likely suspects. Nobody else had ready access to it and in the unlikely event the leak created negative buzz, anybody lower-tier likely would have done real damage to their career. Based on on this quote from Reynolds, it's also likely that those in the inner circle know who leaked it - but aren't saying:

"I know that one of us did it. There’s four of us. There’s me, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Tim Miller, the director. One of us did it. We all sort of said at the beginning, 'Someone should leak it. Someone should leak it.'"

A Deadpool film was a plot of gold just waiting to be mined. The character has one of the most dedicated fandoms in comics, having swiftly become and remained one of Marvel's most popular creations since first publication in the early '90s. Anybody who knew anything about what characters people would like to see in a movie could tell you Deadpool was towards the top of the list for many. But what an audience will actually pay for and what executives think an audience will pay for can sometimes be very different. Leaking the footage is the one trump card these guys had to really demonstrate that people will show up for a feature-length Deadpool adventure - the more severed heads the better.

And to be fair to Fox, their apprehension wasn't totally misguided. They don't have the best track record when it comes to franchising over the last decade or two, but an R-rated, ultra-violent superhero film filled with meta dialogue was completely untested ground. The last R-rated comic book adaptation was 1998's Blade, and that was much safer by comparison. Deadpool was out there, and backing it was a gamble of sizable funding that could go towards less experimental but more "safe" projects. The leak probably wasn't malicious or meant to undermine the company, but to prove that this was a risk worth taking in a way that audience data just couldn't provide.

Will We Ever Know The Truth?

"I’m 70 percent sure it wasn’t me." Ryan Reynolds joked last year, when asked about the footage leak last year. Meanwhile, Tim Miller is considerably more adamant that he wasn't the culprit, telling Collider in an interview last year:

"The leak which happened at Comic Con. I literally got home from Comic Con, put my bags down from getting off the train, and my phone starts blowing up. Like, ‘Dude, your s**t’s online. Oh my f**king god!’ I was horrified. I felt sick to my stomach. I thought Fox would kill me."

This whole thing is perfect fodder for one of those anniversary re-release blu-ray documentaries: 'So Who Really Leaked That Footage?,' with a bunch of new interviews with anyone who was anywhere near the project before it was greenlit. Everyone will continue to point to the finger at everyone else, making jokes that it might have been them, or their kid, or their parents, or whomever else they can implicate without scrutiny.

A concrete answer seems unlikely at this stage. The first movie did gangbusters and everyone's career is all the better for it. There's no need to ever let the truth be heard. And really, it's the kind of legend that encapsulates why people love Deadpool so much: he represents the extreme and the weird and the strange and the rebellious. He was born out of his creator, Rob Liefeld, getting creative control over New Mutants after being a major forcing in turning the book into one of Marvel's top-sellers. The extra-lethal assassin turned the comic industry on its head and shut Liefeld's doubters up very quickly, and with the leak, he did the same for another group of industry underdogs. Not bad for a guy who can barely remember where his ammo-bag is.