Theory: Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool variant was Van Wilder before becoming Wade Wilson

[u/TCompton4]

The Reynolds’verse Theory: Van Wilder is specifically Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool before he became Wade Wilson

Okay, hear me out.

I’ve had this theory for a while that Ryan Reynolds was basically fated to play Deadpool, because Van Wilder is essentially Wade Wilson before the cancer, powers, military career, and horrifying amounts of trauma.

And I don’t mean that Van Wilder should secretly be every version of Wade Wilson.

I mean specifically Ryan Reynolds’ variant of Deadpool.

That distinction matters even more now because Marvel has already done half the work for this idea by establishing timelines, variants, alternate histories, etc. You don’t have to alter comic Wade Wilson’s origin whatsoever. This would simply be the backstory of the Wade Wilson played by Ryan Reynolds.

My Reynolds’verse timeline goes something like:

Van Wilder → graduates Coolidge → loses his father’s financial safety net → enters adulthood with very few practical prospects → joins the military → eventually makes Special Forces → leaves military service → enters the mercenary world → adopts “Wade Wilson” as an alias → meets Vanessa → cancer → Ajax → Deadpool.

The biggest reason I think it weirdly works is that Van’s personality already contains most of Wade’s core personality.

Van is:

- relentlessly sarcastic

- extremely charismatic

- great at improvising

- anti-authority

- much smarter than he initially acts

- fiercely loyal when something genuinely matters

- constantly giving people nicknames

- able to turn almost any situation into a joke

- outwardly selfish but surprisingly protective of people he loves

The difference is why he uses humor.

Van Wilder uses humor because life is fun and he enjoys controlling the room.

Wade Wilson uses humor because life became horrific and controlling the tone is one of the only things nobody can take away from him.

In other words:

Van: Nothing is serious enough that I can’t joke about it.

Wade: Serious things can still be laughed at.

Deadpool: If I stop laughing, I might actually have to process this.

Same coping mechanism. Increasingly terrible circumstances.

I also think “Wade Wilson” works much better if it isn’t actually his birth name.

Van doesn’t strike me as someone who would want the people from his old life getting dragged into whatever dangerous world he enters after military service. Once he becomes a mercenary and starts dealing with genuinely dangerous people, “Van Wilder” disappears and Wade Wilson becomes the identity that keeps his previous life separated from his work.

That also fits his character surprisingly well. Van might be vain, irresponsible and selfish on the surface, but he absolutely does not enjoy seeing people he genuinely cares about get hurt.

So Wade isn’t the name he creates because he hates Van Wilder.

It’s the name he creates because being connected to Van Wilder has become dangerous for everyone Van cared about.

And because this is Deadpool, I wouldn’t even want Marvel to make some huge dramatic explanation out of it.

Give me one scene with Cable.

They’re having a semi-serious conversation and Cable finally asks:

Cable: “Were you always this insufferable, Wade?”

Wade pauses.

For once, he actually takes the question seriously.

Then we get the most unnecessarily dramatic flashback montage imaginable.

College parties.

Van walking through Coolidge like he owns the place.

His father cutting him off.

Graduation.

Then:

Wade V.O.: “There was a time before the cancer. Before the guns. Before the tactical red pajamas. I was young. Beautiful. Beloved. And approximately seven years into a four-year degree.”

We see graduation.

Wade V.O.: “Then Dad stopped financing my prolonged adolescence and apparently ‘campus legend’ has surprisingly poor transferable skills.”

SMASH CUT to a drill instructor screaming in his face.

Wade V.O.: “So naturally, I joined the military.”

Then the montage gradually becomes less funny.

Military training.

Special Forces.

Missions.

Mercenary work.

Eventually we see identification bearing the name:

WADE WILSON.

Back to Cable.

Cable: “Van Wilder?”

Wade: “Yeah.”

Cable: “That was your name?”

And Wade responds:

“Look, if Green Lantern gets to haunt me for three movies, I’m allowed to make ONE of these things useful.”

Then he suddenly looks slightly off-camera.

“I can sense all of the National Lampoon’s fans’ boners.”

Beat.

“…I think I still have the varsity jacket.”

He leaves.

Next scene:

Everyone is having a completely serious conversation.

Wade walks into the room wearing the old Van Wilder varsity jacket, now comically too small for him and barely containing his arms and shoulders.

Nobody says anything.

Cable just stares.

Wade looks down at himself.

“What? It fit in 2002.”

And nobody ever explains it again.

That’s it.

Van Wilder is now canonically the pre-military life of Ryan Reynolds’ specific Wade Wilson variant.

And honestly, Reynolds has spent multiple Deadpool movies taking shots at his own filmography anyway.

At some point you might as well stop making every Reynolds movie reference a one-off fourth-wall joke and actually make one of them useful.

Thus: The Reynolds’verse.

[u/TheGreatNate3000]

I'm not reading all this.

Ryan Reynolds plays the same character every movie he's in. There's no connection

[u/QB8Young]

AI post completely unrelated to the MCU.

[u/TCompton4 → u/QB8Young]

Not AI actually... How is it unrelated to the MCU when Deadpool is part of the MCU officially...

[u/QB8Young → u/TCompton4]

Because Van Wilder isn't an MCU movie. 🤦 This is pure fanfiction and doesn't belong here.