Deadpool

The Deadpool franchise is, in the wiki, the working illustration of Ryan Reynolds as an auteur across both film and business. Reynolds — with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick — “acted the role of auteurs” in shaping Deadpool as a character, giving the franchise a distinct creative voice rather than treating it as interchangeable studio output.

The franchise also serves the broader argument that big Intellectual Property can still be good. The flagship data point, drawn from the Ryan Reynolds page, is Deadpool & Wolverine ($200M budget, 78% Rotten Tomatoes) set against Batman v Superman ($325M, 29%) — the basis for “Bigger does not mean better. But good does not mean small.” That same argument anchors Kyle’s essay The Hits Business.

Context: Deadpool is a Marvel Comics antihero (created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld) brought to the screen by Ryan Reynolds across Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024); the R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking tone defined the series.

Where this appears

• Ryan Reynolds — the franchise is the central example of Reynolds-as-auteur and of good-at-scale IP