The most memorable Ryan Reynolds roles

As a child, Reynolds started his career in his native Canada. The teen drama was known as Hillside in Canada, but Fifteen here in the United States, where it aired on Nickelodeon. Reynolds played the younger brother of one of the main characters, and these days, Fifteen is basically known because it was Reynolds’ first show, and you can see the kid version of him acting.

This was Reynolds’ true breakout role. Any comic actor is looking for that starring role on a sitcom, and Reynolds got it in 1998. Originally titled Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, this was a sitcom mostly remembered for its name. It was tweaked several times in its four-season run, including losing the “Pizza Place” from the title.

Look, Van Wilder is bad. It’s a juvenile comedy. Reynolds plays a smarmy eternal frat boy who is our main character, a somehow even more loathsome version of Ferris Bueller. And yet, we can’t deny the movie was a success with its audience. Reynolds starred in a hit comedy, and he would be known as Van Wilder to many for years to come.

The comic book world would serve Reynolds both well and poorly in his career. His first notable experience in that world came in Blade: Trinity. Reynolds played Hannibal King, and he is sort of in a prototype version of the persona he would end up playing for years.

What if Van Wilder worked at a restaurant? That’s basically what Waiting… is. It did have a pretty good cast. We’re talking Reynolds, Justin Long, and Anna Faris. That’s about all it has going for it, though.

If Amy Smart had a lead role in a film in the 2000s, odds were it wasn’t very good. Just Friends is pretty brutal. When Reynolds is playing the high school version of himself, he’s in a pretty cheap looking fat suit. The whole plot is eye rolling, even by 2005 standards. Like we said, though, “memorable” doesn’t necessarily mean “good.”

Reynolds was having some issues with starring roles. In Adventureland, he took a step back and took on a supporting role in this coming-of-age movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. It was, to date, the best movie Reynolds had been in. He’s also playing a guy you aren’t necessarily supposed to like for once, as opposed to a weird amalgam of likable and unlikeable he tended to play in lead roles.

This was the first time Reynolds played Deadpool. It was also a disaster. This whole movie is a disaster, but it was such a fiasco, it was destined to be remembered. Most notably, they decided that the character known as the “Merc with the Mouth” should have his mouth sewn shut so he can’t talk.

Finally, a successful romantic comedy from Reynolds. The fact he got to co-star with Sandra Bullock (and Betty White) certainly helped. It’s an “avoid deportation through marriage” movie, so it starts from a weird place. Within romantic-comedy logic, though, it works perfectly fine.

Reynolds was given a chance to lead a superhero movie. Green Lantern was a significant character in the DC world. Then, it was a total flop. Even Reynolds admits that. It could have really set his career back, but Reynolds did manage to rebound. Plus, he did meet future wife Blake Lively on this film, so it wasn’t all bad.

Voiceover work isn’t always memorable, but Reynolds does have a certain tone and cadence to his voice that’s unavoidable. His persona comes through when he speaks. The Croods was also a huge hit, not to mention Oscar-nominated. Reynold plays Guy, a teenaged caveman who is a bit more modern than the rest.

R.I.P.D. had an interesting premise. Two ghosts have to go around wrangling ghost fugitives who have returned to Earth. Plus, Reynolds and Jeff Bridges could have made a great pairing, especially since Bridges had already gone into his “Rooster Cogburn 24/7” era. And yet, the execution wasn’t there. R.I.P.D. became a memorable misfire.

Rarely did Reynolds ever do the thing where he’d make a low-budget, serious film. Mississippi Grind is an atypical movie for him. It’s basically a take on California Split, but somehow even less glamorous. Reynolds costars with Ben Mendelsohn. Reynolds does real dramatic work, as he showed here.

The film that made Reynolds’ career. Sure, he had been at it for a while, but Reynolds will forever be synonymous with Deadpool. The movie was a massive hit, and Reynolds did everything he could to shepherd it. Reynolds made Deadpool happen, and it paid off big time.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a bit of a “memorable because of the title” movie, but it got a sequel. That means it had to have some degree of success, and it certainly helps make it more memorable. Plus, it came right in the wake of Deadpool, which made sure it was in the zeitgeist at the moment.

Deadpool 2 is one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time. It showed that Deadpool wasn’t a fluke. Of course, it also showed that Reynolds had his signature character. Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool. It’s that simple.

There is no mistaking Pikachu in this movie as being anything other than a “Ryan Reynolds performance.” It feels like a PG version of Deadpool at times. His Pikachu is snarky and jokey and lives off of references. Detective Pikachu was a big hit, and honestly, it’s a better movie than you might think.

By the time of Hobbs & Shaw, Reynolds was getting cameos so that people could say, “Hey, it’s Ryan Reynolds!” That’s the level of notoriety he had risen to off the back of Deadpool. He has a cameo in Hobbs & Shaw and does uncredited voice work. And yet, he stands out. They brought Reynolds in to do just that. When he shows up in a big movie like this, you remember him.

Free Guy is glaring proof that the Ryan Reynolds persona is now a thing. This movie is built around Reynolds being Reynolds. It’s a variation on a theme. The film, about a character in a game realizing that he is a character in a game, is not all that good. It was also a huge hit. Why? Because Reynolds was doing his thing, and people love that.

What if Dwayne Johnson did his thing, Ryan Reynolds did his thing, and Gal Gadot did her thing? That’s Red Notice in a nutshell. It’s a Netflix movie that seemed to spend all its budget on the stars and saved money everywhere else. Due to those stars, it was apparently watched as much as anything on Netflix. It’s a Netflix programmer built on star personas. Not bad for a guy who once shared billing with a pizza place.