The summer of 2025 may not be one for the Marvel Studios history books: Thunderbolts* wrapped its theatrical run with $190 million in U.S. (big, but not Marvel big), and The Fantastic Four has cooled quickly since its release in July. Which may explain why Ryan Reynolds has swooped in to rekindle the embers of last year’s massive Deadpool & Wolverine and get the hype machines rolling for his next appearance as the Merc with a Mouth.
On Tuesday night, Reynolds posted a cryptic image on Instagram featuring the Avengers “A” logo spray-painted with anarchy “A” graffiti, hinting at a potential return for Deadpool. The post arrived on the heels of… well, nothing.
Despite a worldwide gross of $1.3 billion — more than the current global box-office totals for Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four combined — Marvel has yet to announce any kind of Deadpool sequel, let alone a cross-MCU appearance from Reynolds’ superhero. And though the bench (er, row of chairs) for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday is currently 25 actors deep, Reynolds hasn’t even come up in a list of rumored Marvel actors involved with the 2026 blockbuster that could nearly double the size of the cast. So what is Reynolds teasing with his goof on Avengers?
In a conversation with Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Andrew Garfield in late 2024, the actor sounded pretty adamant he wouldn’t return for a standalone Deadpool movie any time in the future.
I don’t know what the future of Deadpool will be… The other thing is, I see Deadpool as a supporting [character] much more than he is a main [character], the center. We center him sometimes because that’s what they want, but you can’t center him unless you take everything away from him. You have to create a situation where he’s so much the underdog, and I don’t think I can do that again. So I think if he comes back, it’s going to be in someone else’s movie. Channing Tatum was so excited to play Gambit [in Deadpool & Wolverine], and I would happily be the fifth banana in his movie or anyone else’s.
One person who is involved with Avengers: Doomsday? Channing Tatum as Gambit, who will run alongside Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, and many of the Fox-era X-Men characters in what’s expected to be their last bow. So it would make sense for Deadpool to get in on the multiverse-colliding action — but there’s another twist. Earlier this year, news broke that Reynolds was in early development on a movie that would team Deadpool up with the X-Men… but which versions of those characters remains unclear, as Marvel Studios is full steam ahead on a reboot of the superhero team directed by Thunderbolts* Jake Schrier. Still, rumor has it that Marvel is interested in keeping Hugh Jackman on as a new universe’s Wolverine. Confusing? Yes. Yes it is.
Reynolds’ Instagram appears to have melted the brains of those with an unwavering commitment to the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, a clear message that Deadpool is suiting back up for the next Avengers. The business happening behind the scenes makes it much shadier. But in the absence of a truly revelatory new Marvel blockbuster, it’s no surprise that even Deadpool & Wolverine’s lead actor is feeling nostalgic for one year ago when a self-referential team-up movie was lighting up multiplexes. It was a nice feeling.
The second high of Deadpool & Wolverine in the dead zone of August extends beyond even Reynolds’ social teases: Elektra, the maligned 2005 Daredevil sequel and reason for Jennifer Garner suiting up as an assassin in Reynolds and Jackman’s mash-up movie, is currently trending #3 on Netflix worldwide. And that number doesn’t even include American viewers, who only have streaming access to the movie on Disney Plus.
Even during the D&W vortex, Elektra never received the “it’s good, actually” reconsideration that most crappy 2000s movies get 20 years later. It currently sits at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not the end-all-be-all evaluator of taste, but seems… kinda right in this case. There are significantly better ninja movies to spend time watching than Elektra. And yet, here we are.
So while Reynolds could very well be teasing a cameo in Avengers: Doomsday, it seems entirely possible that now, in the void of zeitgeisty Marvel (but not The Void of zeitgeisty Marvel), the actor is posting with the impulse shared by legions of his fans, ostensibly, everyone queuing up Elektra in the year 2025. Deadpool & Wolverine just hit that hard.
