Ryan Reynolds wants Disney to extend the R-rated success of Deadpool & Wolverine into the Star Wars franchise.
The Deadpool actor revealed on an episode of The Box Office podcast that he “pitched” the idea of an R-rated Star Wars “property” to Disney.
“I pitched to Disney, I said, ‘Why don’t we do an R-rated Star Wars property?’” he said, continuing of his pitch, “‘It doesn’t have to be overt, A+ characters. There’s a wide range of characters you could use.’ And I don’t mean R-rated to be vulgar. R-rated as a Trojan horse for emotion. I always wonder why studios don’t want to just gamble on something like that.”
While the actor is keen on the idea, he clarified that he did not want to star in the possible future film or TV show because “That would be a bad fit.” Instead, he’d like to sign on as a producer or writer.
“I’m not saying I want to be in it,” Reynolds explained. “I’d want to produce and write or be a part of behind the scenes. Those kinds of IP subsist really well on scarcity and surprise. We don’t get scarcity really with Star Wars because of Disney+, but you can certainly still surprise people.”
He notably starred, wrote and produced the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time with Marvel Studios and Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Despite Reynolds’ familiarity with R-rated projects, the Star Wars franchise has never developed a project in that specific rating. However, the Disney+ series Andor has depicted sensitive material.
Aside from his Star Wars pitch, Reynolds is also considering another Deadpool film that would feature X-Men characters, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. The idea for the project would incorporate three or four X-Men characters with a potential supporting role for Reynolds’ Deadpool.
While he has many future film projects on the horizon, Reynolds is currently writing Paramount’s Boy Band film, which is slated as a comedy centered around an aged boy band group.
