Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman took their Deadpool & Wolverine promotional campaign in a raunchy new direction on Thursday with the unveiling of a new popcorn bucket to accompany the film.
The bucket featured a cartoonish version of the X-Man Wolverine’s face with a gaping, sexually suggest mouth — complete with tongue.
Ryan, 47, shared a humorous video dramatically unveiling the popcorn bucket to his YouTube page and social media accounts, while Hugh, 55, also posted the video.
The video, which got high marks from fans, not only alluded to the actors’ faux-feud and Deadpool’s leering toward his fellow superhero Wolverine, but it also seemed to poke fun at the reception to the official Dune: Part Two popcorn bucket, which many fans thought looked like a ‘Fleshlight,’ a risqué male sex toy.
The Deadpool team went even further in that direction with their suggestive bucket, which will be available in theaters upon the release of the R-rated superhero film on July 26.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman took their Deadpool & Wolverine promotional campaign in a raunchy new direction on Thursday with the unveiling of a new popcorn bucket to accompany the film
Ryan, 47, shared a humorous video dramatically unveiling the popcorn bucket to his YouTube page and social media accounts, while Hugh, 55, also posted the video; seen in 2022 in NYC
The video, which got high marks from fans, seemed to poke fun at the reception to the official Dune: Part Two popcorn bucket, which many fans thought looked like a ‘Fleshlight,’ a risqué male sex toy
‘Years from now they will look back at 2024 as the year the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,’ Ryan joked in his caption when he posted a playful video introducing the bucket on Instagram.
The clip was set to the opening fanfare of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, which most famously bookended Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and was more recently used in a scene parodying the sci-fi classic in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
The camera slowly circled the bucket while a gloved hand that was meant to be Deadpool’s suggestively caressed Wolverine’s surprised face.
The mercenary superhero covered Wolverine’s eyes as if to play peekaboo, and popcorn was seen raining down into its open mouth.
Although the new popcorn bucket is designed to rest upright, it was placed on its side to play up the sexually suggestive design.
The video featured a particularly risqué climax as a stream of melted butter began to dribble down the Wolverine bucket’s face and into its mouth.
Hugh — who is good friends with Ryan in real life despite pretending to be enemies in public — posted the video to his own Instagram account, captioning it, ‘Don’t try to butter me up.’
The video announcement was a hit on social media and began trending on YouTube, and Deadpool fans took to social media to share the scandalized reactions.
‘Years from now they will look back at 2024 as the year the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,’ Ryan joked in his caption on Instagram
The clip was set to the opening fanfare of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, which most famously bookended Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The camera slowly circled the bucket while a gloved hand that was meant to be Deadpool’s suggestively caressed Wolverine’s surprised face
The bucket featured a cartoonish version of the X-Man Wolverine’s face with a gaping, sexually suggest mouth — complete with tongue
The mercenary superhero covered Wolverine’s eyes as if to play peekaboo, and popcorn was seen raining down into its open mouth
The video featured a particularly risqué climax as a stream of melted butter began to dribble down the Wolverine bucket’s face and into its mouth
Although much of the reception was positive, with fans thinking the popcorn bucket was a hilarious escalation of the Dune: Part Two bucket, many other users thought the bucket wasn’t funny at all due to the Deadpool team’s apparent attempts to tag on to the earlier, more organic popcorn bucket hysteria.
‘The Deadpool 3 wolverine popcorn bucket…. they really just…. Wow. They really did that,’ wrote one stunned user on X (formerly Twitter).
Another user joked that the ‘popcorn bucket is the stuff of nightmares… I love it. I must have it,’ while one fan said it was ‘the only one’ of this recent crop of tubs that they would buy.
Plenty of Deadpool fans tried to show off their comedic chops by riffing on the raunchy popcorn receptacle.
‘There’s still time for them to make a soda cup for Deadpool and have them inappropriately interact!’ joked another user.
Another fan theorized that the sexual popcorn tub signaled that ‘Disney is finally ready to jump into the mature-adult-oriented nature while still being a family-friendly company,’ which they seemed to think was a good thing.
While many Deadpool fans and social media users noted that the new bucket was likely inspired by the wave of Dune fans who thought its sandworm-shaped popcorn bucket looked like a sex toy, some social media users thought the more calculating Deadpool response missed the mark.
‘The Dune popcorn bucket was funny because the sexuality was a mistake. Thus the Deadpool popcorn bucket is not funny,’ wrote entertainment writer and film critic Esther Zuckerman.
Another poster opined that ‘the new deadpool movie is rapidly approaching epic bacon funko pop levels of cringe,’ adding that it was ‘powerfully unappealing.’
Much of the reception was positive, with fans thinking the popcorn bucket was a hilarious escalation of the Dune: Part Two bucket; still from Deadpool & Wolverine
One fan wrote that the bucket ‘is the only one of these I’m ever gonna buy’
One fan approvingly called it ‘the stuff of nightmares,’ adding, ‘I love it. I must have it’
Plenty of Deadpool fans tried to show off their comedic chops by riffing on the raunchy popcorn receptacle
One fan was particularly excited about the prospect of Disney jumping ‘into the mature-adult-oriented nature while still being a family-friendly company’
Some social media users thought the more calculating Deadpool response missed the mark. Entertainment writer Esther Zuckerman said the Dune bucket ‘was funny because the sexuality was a mistake’
Another poster said the film’s marketing ‘is rapidly approaching epic bacon funko pop levels of cringe’
One user had a similar opinion, labeling the Deadpool bucket ‘so try-hard’
But some Deadpool fans tried to claim that the Deadpool bucket could have come into existence without the controversy over the Dune bucket, as it was supposedly exactly what Deadpool would do
Fans will have a chance to snatch up the sexually suggestive popcorn tubs when the Deadpool & Wolverine is released on July 26; still from Deadpool & Wolverine
One user had a similar opinion, labeling the Deadpool bucket ‘so try-hard.’
‘The DUNE bucket worked b/c it was unexpected & was accidentally funny/sexual. The response to it was organic,’ they explained. ‘This bucket is literally them going, “LMAO YOU’RE GONNA FIST WOLVERINE’S MOUTH.”‘
But some Deadpool fans tried to claim that the Deadpool bucket could have come into existence without the controversy over the Dune bucket, as it was supposedly exactly what Deadpool would do.
Fans will have a chance to snatch up the sexually suggestive popcorn tubs when the Deadpool & Wolverine is released on July 26.
