The Final Confession: Ryan Reynolds Admits He Personally Leaked ‘Deadpool’ Footage in 2014

In what has long been one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets, actor Ryan Reynolds has finally come clean, admitting he was the one who personally leaked the famous Deadpool test footage online in 2014. The admission, made during a conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, brings an end to a decade of speculation and playful misdirection from the star. The footage, which was created to convince 20th Century Fox to greenlight an R-rated Deadpool film, was met with a massive fan outcry online, leading the studio to give the project the green light just 24 hours later. The leak is now seen as the singular event that saved the franchise and launched one of the most successful superhero series in history.

For years, Reynolds had dodged the question with a mischievous grin. He’d joked in interviews, celebrated “Leak-iversaries” on social media, and even evaded the question while hooked up to a lie detector. Now, a decade later and with the franchise solidified as a billion-dollar juggernaut, he has finally revealed the truth. “Yes, I cheated a little,” Reynolds confessed, “but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in. And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”

The Leak That Changed Everything

The backstory of the Deadpool test footage is a classic Hollywood tale of an underdog fighting against a system that doesn’t believe in them. In 2012, two years before the leak, Reynolds and director Tim Miller created a short, CGI-animated test reel to prove that an R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking, and brutally violent film about a “fringe character” could work. The studio, however, was not convinced. In a landscape dominated by family-friendly superhero movies, an R-rated film with a relatively unknown character was deemed too risky. The test footage sat on a shelf for two years, and the project languished in development hell.

• The Viral Explosion: When the footage mysteriously appeared online in July 2014, it went viral. The internet exploded with fan support, and the demand for a full-length movie was overwhelming. This groundswell of public interest was the final push the studio needed. The overwhelming data of millions of views and a constant stream of positive comments was a financial argument that the studio could not ignore. The gamble paid off spectacularly.
• A Masterful PR Stunt: While Reynolds’ actions may have been an act of desperation, they were also a genius piece of guerrilla marketing. The calculated risk to leak the footage turned the project into a fan-driven phenomenon and created an authentic, grassroots movement that a traditional marketing campaign could never have replicated. Reynolds’ own admission, “I’m looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth,” perfectly captures the cheeky and meta nature of the character he was fighting to bring to the big screen.
• A Billion-Dollar Bet: The original 2016 Deadpool film, made on a relatively modest budget of $58 million, went on to gross nearly $800 million worldwide. This unprecedented success not only spawned two sequels, including the billion-dollar Deadpool & Wolverine, but it also proved that R-rated superhero films could be a major box office draw. The leak is now considered a landmark moment in the history of the genre, a direct testament to the power of a single individual’s belief and the collective voice of the internet.

The timing of the confession is also significant. With Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Reynolds is now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a move that would have been impossible for him to do when he was a Fox-contracted actor. He is now free to talk about the leak without legal or professional repercussions. This final, official admission feels like the last piece of the puzzle, a full-circle moment for a character who has always broken the fourth wall, and for an actor who has now admitted to breaking the rules for the good of his art.

The story of the Deadpool leak will be told for years to come. It’s a perfect example of a high-risk, high-reward strategy that not only saved a franchise but also cemented a new kind of celebrity for an actor who was already a household name.