Did Ryan Reynolds have the perfect plan for marketing Deadpool and Wolverine? The actor speaks on why he didn’t flex Hugh Jackman more in the first trailer for the Marvel team-up.
Deadpool and Wolverine rocked the world when its first trailer dropped at this year’s Superbowl. Fans had been waiting half a decade to see Ryan Reynolds return as the Merc with a Mouth, and the film promised the return of another familiar face in Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. However, according to Reynolds, there was a reason Marvel didn’t splatter his face all across that first push.
“I’m glad we resisted the urge to reveal Hugh [Jackman] in the Super Bowl trailer,” Reynolds explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “You never get that first impression back and it created more anticipation than any of us might have guessed. I’m glad this whole team knows the lesson from Jaws: What you don’t see is more provocative.”
Ryan Reynolds makes a good point that sometimes the best way to keep people talking is to NOT show them something. Speculation was rampant for weeks following that first trailer at the Super Bowl about what Hugh Jackman would look like when he finally made his return in Deadpool and Wolverine. Looking at the box office results, it seems that gamble paid off for Marvel.
Deadpool And Wolverine’s Unique Marketing Tactics
Ryan Reynolds’ influence on Deadpool and Wolverine‘s marketing wasn’t limited to hiding Hugh Jackman’s face. The Marvel film had collaborations with everything from Heineken to The Bachelorette. According to Reynolds, these crossovers were meant to appeal to all corners of the market, not just superhero fans.
“To me, the biggest challenge was avoiding the more R-rated marketing instincts of Deadpool. The marketing was meant to feel all-audience audience as opposed to leaning into a specific comedy, action or superhero genre.”
“The selection of collaborations sent a message about how broad we wanted to go – Heinz, Dave&Busters, NatGeo, TCM, and Bachelorette – but so did the way we wrote them, which was playful but not third rail.”
“We didn’t get everyone on our list, but we got enough and then added others we weren’t expecting It is unusual for an R-rated film, but we were always aiming for four-quadrant coverage – even though the film wasn’t exactly ‘safe.'”
Deadpool and Wolverine is certainly an interesting case study for all of the marketing nerds out there. While Marvel itself is a massive entity, not even counting the personal brands of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, it’s clear something went right for the movie to have the massive box office results that it did when compared to prior installments in the franchise.
