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Deadpool

Real Name: Wade Wilson

The Merc with a Mouth · The Regenerating Degenerate

2
Actors
4
Films
17
Years On Screen
2009
First Film

📖 About

Wade Wilson is the comic-book character who knows he's in a comic book. Ryan Reynolds spent over a decade trying to get the character on screen properly — leaked test footage in 2014 forced Fox's hand, and the resulting trilogy redefined what an R-rated superhero film could be commercially.

🎭 Every Actor Who Played Deadpool

Across 17 years and 4 films, these are the performers who brought Deadpool to life on screen.

Deadpool
★ Definitive Performance
The film that changed superhero cinema. R-rated, made on a tiny budget, grossing $782 million worldwide. Reynolds had been pushing this version of the character for nearly a decade; the leaked test footage forced Fox's hand, and superhero films became permanently more diverse in tone afterward.

🎬 Every Film Appearance

All 4 appearances of Deadpool on the big screen, in chronological order.

2009Ryan Reynolds
Pre-mutated Wade Wilson

The first cinematic Deadpool — wrong, mouthless, controversial. The film's Deadpool became a famous "what not to do" example. Reynolds spent years undoing this.

2016Ryan Reynolds
Lead

The redo. R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking, profane, romantic. Made on a $58M budget, grossed $782M. Genre-defining.

2018Ryan Reynolds
Lead

Cable, Domino, X-Force. Wade time-travels back to assassinate Origins-Deadpool — canonical retcon by movie. Ends with the time-travel device intact.

2024Ryan Reynolds
Lead

TVA recruits Wade. Resurrects Variant-Wolverine. Travels to the Void. Cameos with Channing Tatum's Gambit, Jennifer Garner's Elektra, Wesley Snipes' Blade. Officially merges Fox-X-Men with MCU.

📚 Comic Storylines That Inspired the Films

The original published stories that screen versions have drawn from.

Limited series (1994)
Deadpool: Sins of the Past
by Mark Waid & Ian Churchill
Wade's first solo storyline. Establishes the Wade-vs-T-Ray rivalry that defines his core mythology.
50 issues (2004–08)
Cable & Deadpool
by Fabian Nicieza et al.
The buddy-cop dynamic adapted into Deadpool 2. The film's Cable casting was widely praised as faithful.
4-issue mini (2012)
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe
by Cullen Bunn & Dalibor Talajić
A Wade given god-tier awareness assassinates every Marvel hero. Influences Deadpool 2's post-credits gag.
#287–300 (2017–18)
Despicable Deadpool
by Gerry Duggan
Wade contracts to assassinate Cable. The arc that closes Wade's Marvel-NOW! era and sets up Deadpool's long-form character arc.