Originally appeared on E! Online
The below contains spoilers from "Deadpool & Wolverine."
This story ends with Blake Lively.
After her role as Lady Deadpool in husband Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's "Deadpool & Wolverine" was revealed, the "It Ends With Us" star shared the incredible journey of how she wound up being cast in the Marvel film.
And the story dates back farther than you'd think. After all, Deadpool comic book creator Rob Liefield already had the actress in mind when he drew his first version of the unmasked superhero in 2010, as he and wife Joy Liefield were huge fans of another iconic character Lively played.
"Joy and I were crazy uber 'Gossip Girl' fans (who wasn't right?), never missing a single episode," Liefield wrote in a screenshot shared by Lively in a July 26 Instagram post. "Yup, I pleaded a strong case that Wanda Wilson was stunning blonde, no scars and Marvel thought that was a cool idea. Invoked Blake on GG and they gave me the thumbs up."
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Of course, this rendering was created before Lively and Reynolds' 2012 nuptials and the first "Deadpool" movie adaptation arrived in theaters in 2016. In fact, the "A Simple Favor" actress recalled the "Free Guy" actor pitching the film to her and Taika Waititi that same year.
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"It was a 'meta' superhero," Lively explained in the caption of her July 26 Instagram. "Most of us didn’t know what exactly meta meant back then. Except Taika bc he’s always been more brilliant than the rest of us mortals."
Noting that she felt "murky" on whether Reynolds' idea would "come together for an audience," the 36-year-old recalled thinking at the time, "It wasn’t a real dream. The movie was never gonna happen."
However, Lively was eventually proved wrong, and a year before the third installment of "Deadpool" started filming, she discovered that Liefield envisioned her in the Lady Deadpool role.
"And today it’s in theaters," she marveled. "The universe has such a magical sense of humor sometimes."
And while Lively has known she would don the black and red jumpsuit for two years, fans have been left to speculate until the film's release, with some guessing correctly and some wondering if longtime pal Taylor Swift would make her Marvel debut.
But Reynolds—who shares kids James, 9, Inez, 7, Betty, 4, and Olin, born in 2023, with Lively—didn't let the latter theory last long.
“I wish!” the 47-year-old said of Swift appearing in the superhero flick during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." “Taylor, you know, if I ever stop, she’d make a good Deadpool. She’s funny. Funny!”
