No, Ryan Reynolds and Michael Bay Aren’t Doing A ThunderCats Movie

Lion-o with the sword of omens in Thundercats

Yesterday we heard one of the most bizarre film rumors in recent memory. It claimed that the new Netflix movie currently being directed by Michael Bay and starring Ryan Reynolds, Six Underground, was actually a Thundercats movie that was filming in secret. It seemed far too crazy to be real, and now we know that it actually was. Rhett Reese, who co-wrote Six Underground with his Deadpool collaborator Paul Wernick, took to Twitter to respond to this odd rumor with a single word which clears things up.

See more

So that pretty much spells it out. It's not exactly shocking that this rumor turned out to be false. It seemed crazy from the start. Of course, that certainly leads one to ask how the heck such an off the wall rumor got started. While an anonymous source was cited for the original rumor, IGN Middle East, called the source "reliable." Since it turns out the information was maybe not so reliable, what happened? Oftentimes when rumors turn out to be untrue they are still based on something real, so does that mean there really is a Thundercats movie in development, or about to start filming? Maybe something really is happening, but not with Michael Bay or Six Underground. Maybe Six Underground really is a cover for an entirely different movie, but just not Thundercats. Or maybe the "reliable" source got fed some really bad info just to see if it ended up online.

I wonder if that latter scenario might be the correct one. It wouldn't be the first time that somebody fed bad information to somebody they thought was a leak in order to confirm the suspicion. When the news ends up online you know who provided it and you don't lose out on anything since it was all bogus. Whoever provided the info to the source would also potentially be in a good position to make it seem real even though it was not. If that's the case, this reliable source may not be around much longer.

Still, as wild as this whole thing sounded, there are almost certainly a lot of people who will be disappointed to learn that none of it is real. The Thundercats are a property that still has a devoted fan base, one that is passionate enough to get bent out of shape when animation styles change drastically for entirely new versions of the cartoon.

On the plus side, Six Underground sounds like a solid movie in its own right, so hopefully, we can all enjoy the movie we're getting and not worry about the one that will likely never happen.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.