He’s everyone’s favorite mouthy mercenary but is Deadpool on Netflix? Ryan Reynolds first became interested in making a Deadpool movie while he was working on 2004’s Blade: Trinity, with his performance as Hannibal King inspired by the character. It would be a long road to the character receiving a solo movie, however. Reynolds would first play the Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the various changes made to Deadpool for the Wolverine prequel - including having his mouth sewn shut - led to fans rejecting the movie’s portrayal.
Reynolds was also unhappy with how X-Men Origins treated Deadpool and was essentially pushed into the role with the hope Fox would greenlight a solo movie. Despite a script being written and test footage being shot by director Tim Miller (Terminator 6), Fox decided not to pursue a Deadpool movie for years. It was only when the test footage leaked and went viral did they reconsider and the movie was finally released in 2016. The long-awaited solo film would become a huge success for Fox in spite of its R-rating, with Deadpool 2 quickly arriving in 2018 and being just as big of a hit.
The Deadpool movies have collectively earned over $1 billion worldwide, making them the most successful of the X-Men series. Despite this success Deadpool the movie has never been made available to stream on Netflix in the U.S. The first movie was once available on the service in the UK but it’s almost assured neither Deadpool nor Deadpool 2 will ever be available on Netflix in the U.S.
With the Disney/Fox merger now complete Disney will be focusing on solidifying their brand, with their own streaming platform Disney+ being an important next step. In addition to removing all of their content from other platforms, Disney+ will also feature exclusive shows like Loki and The Mandalorian. Netflix and Disney also had something of a bad breakup following the cancelation of MCU universe shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
The R-rated shenanigans of Deadpool are very unlikely to end up on Disney+, though, but Disney recently purchased over 67% of Hulu, meaning the two films will likely reside there. It will be interesting to see how the franchise fares under Disney, with CEO Bob Iger promising the Deadpool franchise will remain R-rated for the foreseeable future. Deadpool 2 received a special PG-13 re-edit in late 2018, with Once Upon A Deadpool adding a new framing device with actor Fred Savage and removing all bad language and gore.
While the news might be disappointing to some, Deadpool is definitely not available on Netflix and in all likelihood, it never will be.
Next: Deadpool 2 Now Highest Grossing X-Men Movie Ever
