ryan reynolds

Comic-Con is just two days away, and while we don’t know everything we can expect to see in Hall H this year, there are a few films guaranteed to make an appearance — including Deadpool 2. Filming is already underway for the sequel to last year’s foul-mouthed box office hit, and if you’re feeling antsy about Thursday’s 20th Century Fox panel, Ryan Reynolds has offered up a little something to tide you over until then.

At last, a news item that combines the two most universally beloved genres of showbiz reporting: “Celebrities extending kindness to un-famous teens by acknowledging them through the internet” stories and “Ryan Reynolds getting into mischief again!” stories. We live in wondrous times, friends, where a skillful Photoshop job and a moment’s tweetings can get a bona fide movie star into your orbit — and change the trajectory of your life forever.

The X-Men star announced that the hotly anticipated sequel is underway with a cool shot from the set of Fox’s big mutant blockbuster

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Deadpool 2 is officially underway! Even though we’ve spent more than a year analyzing and talking about Ryan Reynolds’ merc with a mouth, the success of the original Deadpool movie is still kinda hard to believe. A $58 million R-rated superhero movie that went on to gross $780 million worldwide? A comic book movie that broke the mold so thoroughly that now every major studio is openly courting the R-rated crowd? Deadpool was a phenomenon, and none of us can wait to see if Reynolds and company are capable of avoiding the sophomore slump.

Behold, the gag reel. Long a staple of the home video market, the gag reel was perhaps at its most popular in the 1990s, when Jackie Chan released a string of movies that included painful outtakes during the closing credits. When studios realized that they could package an entire DVD release around the special feature menu, the gag reel became a mainstay of any comedy releases over the last 15 years. And because Deadpool was one big improvised joke with enough physical humor to make Mel Brooks blush, it was a natural fit for the film’s Blu-ray release as well.

Much in the same way that I have always wondered who delivers mail to mailmen (if they live in their own district, are they allowed to deliver mail to themselves? is that a conflict of interest?), the writers of the new action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard ponder who a career killer goes to when he finds himself a mark. Even professional assassins need a little muscle from time to time, and when one especially ill-tempered sunuvagun hires a body guard with a short fuse, violent egos clash with nose-crushing results.

There was a ton of speculation about who would be playing the much-hyped Cable in Deadpool 2, and as of today, we finally know it’s Josh Brolin. And while that’s fantastic news, it’s also a little confusing for those of us who have been following the whole Avengers: Infinity War saga: Josh Brolin is also playing Thanos in the upcoming Avengers movies.

Deadpool 2 is officially starting production this year, and after a rocky start that involved a director’s exit and some script finagling, finally the movie seems to be back on track. We know that Cable will be in this one (though we still don’t know for sure who’s playing him), and rumors abounded earlier this year that Fox was casting around for an actress to play Domino. Today, we finally know that, yes, Domino will be in the movie, and Atlanta star Zazie Beetz will play her.

Isn’t it just like Ryan Reynolds to upstage a colleague? After listening to critics sing the praises of Logan for the past few weeks, fans around the country took their seats on Friday night ready to watch Hugh Jackman strap on his metal claws one last time. And so it came as quite a surprise when the first superhero to appear onscreen wasn’t Wolverine but Deadpool, everyone’s favorite violent and profane superhero — and, if we’re being honest with each other, the entire reason an R-rated Wolverine movie was greenlit by 20th Century Fox.

"Sure, it's a comic book movie and it's made a lot of money — but that doesn't subtract from Ryan's extraordinary work."

Looks like Warner Bros. and DC are serious about this Green Lantern Corps movie, as the film now has a shortlist of potential Hal Jordan contenders. The movie is being billed as a kind of sci-fi buddy cop flick, with Jordan and his fellow human Lantern John Stewart (no, not that one) palling around the cosmos and fighting crime. Now that the movie has found is writers, the next task is to cast it, and today we know who might be playing one of the main characters.

An “October surprise” refers to a major revelation deliberately timed to influence the outcome of a Presidential election. The Oscars, then, regularly offer a January surprise, in which a contender comes out of nowhere to elbow their way into the awards conversation. This year’s big shock is permanently smirking superhero send-up Deadpool, which has already upended plenty of predictions by racking up nominations among various industry guild groups. Superhero movies have never been able to crack the Best Picture race, but perhaps the self-reflexive meta streak in Deadpool could give it the edge it needs to sneak into the category. The nominations will be announced one week from today, and who’ll end up at the big dance is anyone’s guess.