It Was Feud-ster Hugh Jackman That Connected Ryan Reynolds With Free Guy’s Director, Spawning A Beautiful Friendship

Deadpool 3 Reynolds Jackman Levy
(Image credit: CinemaBlend/Ryan Reynolds)

Actor/producer Ryan Reynolds is an A-listers who the general public seems to adore, thanks to his professional work and killer sense of humor. Case in point: his ongoing faux feud with Hugh Jackman, with the two finally getting to collaborate again on the developing Deadpool 3 movie. It turns out it was Jackman that connected Reynolds with Free Guy’s director Shawn Levy, spawning a beautiful friendship. Ultimately this lead to Levy being the filmmaker behind the Deadpool threequel.

Stranger ThingsShawn Levy has been keeping super busy, including a number of movie projects with Ryan Reynolds. They brought both the video game movie Free Guy and Netflix’s The Adam Project to life together, prior to their upcoming collaboration on Deadpool 3. The duo recently appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, where Reynolds hilariously revealed how they met, saying:

We met on the dating site Hugh.com.

Leave it to Ryan Reynolds to have the perfect joke about his friendship with Shawn Levy ready. And it sounds like his frenemy Hugh Jackman is responsible for the personal and professional relationship that blossomed from these two meeting. Although now I’m sad that Hugh.com isn’t a real dating site; who better to trust with your heart than a superhero?

Later in that same interview on Sunday Morning, Shawn Levy offered more details about how Hugh Jackman facilitated his relationship with Ryan Reynolds. On top of being friends and collaborators, the two are also neighbors in New York; Levy even moved across the country to be closer to Reynolds and his family. As the Stranger Things director shared:

But he told me, ‘If you ever meet Ryan, and [you] ever work with Ryan, [you’ll] never stop.’ And then from the minute we first met on Free Guy it was gangbusters.

It looks like Hugh Jackman is a true match maker. Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy are good friends now, and their families are tight too. This close relationship will no doubt continue as development and eventually filming for Deadpool 3 begins. There’s a ton of anticipation behind that threequel, especially since the first two movies were released in such quick succession. Hopefully filming begins sooner rather than later. You can watch Reynolds and Levy on Sunday Morning below:

It definitely feels like Deadpool 3 is one of the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movies heading to theaters. This hype is partly thanks to Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine, but moviegoers are also excited to see Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed antihero finally exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hopefully that includes an appearance in upcoming crossover projects like Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Deadpool 3 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on November 8th, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. We’ll just have to wait and see what else Levy and Reynolds have up their sleeves for future movies. 

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.