At the beginning of Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade Wilson dances to NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye during the opening credits. Whether that inspired star Ryan Reynolds to pursue music in his next project is debatable. However, one thing is clear: Reynolds wants to reunite with his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star, Hugh Jackman, and director, Shawn Levy, to make Boy Band.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Reynolds revealed his plans to make Boy Band, a movie about former boy band members who reunite as middle-aged men. Reynolds said he’s trying to figure out the “smartest way” to make Boy Band happen, which includes writing the script and making it for significantly less money than Deadpool & Wolverine.
“I’m on a second draft. The first draft was incredible and written by one of my favorite writers, Jesse Andrews,” Reynolds said. “Now, I’m on my lonesome. There are no dates or anything just yet. I’m not filming anything for at least a year. This feels like it needs to have an extremely modest budget and one that wouldn’t be all about going to pay above-the-line actors. Shawn, Hugh, and I are open to creative ways to make this movie at an absolute bargain.”
Boy Band has long been set up at Paramount Pictures, where Reynolds has a first-look deal through his company, Maximum Effort. Reynolds wants to explore how many boy band members struggle in adulthood as they fight to “get their lives back.”
“A lot of members of boy bands — and there are a lot of them — had managers who left them high and dry,” Reynolds said. “They experienced levels of fame that would be very difficult for anyone to navigate, let alone an adolescent, when you are farming out your self-worth to an audience of screaming people. It creates a kind of arrested cultural development. They’re forever associated with that period of time in their lives.
“This would be about people in their 40s and 50s trying to get their lives back,” Reynolds continued. “I think there is something beautiful about that. The north star for me as a producer is joy. I feel like cynicism is a contracting industry, and doesn’t have a great shelf life.”
Reynolds and company are still riding high off the success of Deadpool & Wolverine, the second-highest-grossing movie of 2024 at $1.3 billion. The Marvel movie is now streaming on Disney+.
