Ryan Reynold’s desperation to create a successful superhero franchise resulted in him personally paying for the on-set presence of two of Deadpool’s screenwriters, Yahoo Movies reports.

After Deadpool’s disappointing debut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds wanted to reintroduce the character the way he was meant to be portrayed - as a wisecracking, hyperactive lunatic, not a sulking mutant with his mouth sewn shut.

Technically, he knew he was a perfect fit for the character’s annoying, profanity-laden sense of humour, but it proved to be an uphill struggle to create the film that the fans wanted to see. Fox, understandably fearing failure, continually slashed the budget, and refused to pay for screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to be on-set during the production, at which point Reynolds stepped in - “We were on set every day. Interestingly, Ryan wanted us there. We were on the project for six years. It was really a core creative team of us, Ryan, and the director Tim Miller. Fox, interestingly, wouldn’t pay for us to be on set. Ryan Reynolds paid out of his own money, out of his own pocket.”

An extraordinary step that ultimately paid off, as Deadpool proved to be a mammoth hit, making a total of $782,612,155 off a budget of only $58,000,000. This really shouldn’t have happened, as Deadpool stars a lesser-known superhero who covers his face the majority of the film, and happens to be an R-rated comedy that pokes fun at the entire genre. Reynolds, obviously sick of studio interference, knew what the fans wanted and went the extra mile to ensure his core creative team remained on-set together. It was his dedication to the project and willingness to make sacrifices that ensured the film’s success, and proved that superhero films don’t have to shy away from sex and blood.

Personally, I hated Deadpool. The character’s irritating, “in your face attitude” seemed like it belonged on the cover of a cereal box, back in the 90’s with a backwards-facing baseball cap. But what Reynolds and his team achieved was undeniably a unique attempt at something new, and bold, in a genre saturated with dull, uninspired content. His willingness to pay for what the studio refused to, as well as take a major pay cut, speaks volumes towards his artistic integrity. After all, Reynolds starred in not just one, or two, but three terrible superhero films. Clearly, the man is passionate about comic books and was determined to leave his mark on the superhero genre.

And he did. Not only did Deadpool prove an R-rated comedy/superhero film could work, it also showed the value of actually listening to the fans. After languishing in “development hell,” the film was only given the greenlight due to test footage being released online, the ecstatic fan reaction indicating that there was money to be made.

Nevertheless, the multiple cuts Fox made to the budget forced the filmmakers to make some difficult creative decisions, such as Deadpool “forgetting” his guns in a cab to avoid an expensive, bullet-ridden finale, and melding the three original villains into a single antagonist, Angel Dust. This might have actually ended up improving the end result, as bloated action scenes and multiple villains tend to be the biggest problem with most uninspired superhero blockbusters. Plus, Deadpool’s snarky references to budget cuts only added to the sense of fun.

With Deadpool 2 given an enthusiastic greenlight, and rumors of more X-Men characters being added to the mix, hopefully the creative team continues to stick to their guns (or lack of), and keep the sequel free of the dreaded budget bloat.