While Deadpool has become an incredibly popular character, he hasn't really been around for all that long, compared to some of his fellow Marvel heroes. Deadpool first appeared in the '90s and was part of a new wave of violent anti-heroes that took the comic world by storm.
Deadpool has appeared in multiple comic series over the years, and he is becoming increasingly popular in other mediums with multiple appearances on animated series, feature-length animated movies, and big-budget live-action movies. So today we are going to rank out all of Deadpool's big and small screen appearances to see which is the best non-comic Deadpool out there.
10 X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
The first live-action appearance of Wade Wilson occurred in the Hugh Jackman/Logan spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and was undoubtedly the worst version of the character fans could have ever imagined. Wade was even portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, who would continue playing the character in live-action, but he couldn't save Fox's original version of Deadpool.
Fans never got the chance to see the character wear his iconic red-and-black uniform, or talk to the audience, or really even talk, considering the "Deadpool" seen at the end of the film had his mouth sewn shut. We're thankful this version existed only because it brought Reynolds to the role, and allowed him to later lampoon the worst version as the best version, but more on that later.
9 X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
Deadpool has an interesting history of cameos on the incredibly popular X-Men: The Animated Series that aired in the 90s, as the character appeared quite a few times without actually fully appearing once. Given that X-Men: TAS was a Saturday morning cartoon show, even saying the character's name in the 90s proved difficult, and it was never once said on the show.
It's also almost never the actual character as he first appeared in one of Sabretooth's psychic flashbacks, and later when Morph transformed into Deadpool and Dark Xavier used a psychic projection of Deadpool during the "Dark Phoenix Saga," and the "unnamed" character also never spoke any lines in any of his cameos.
8 X-MEN ANIME
Marvel debuted four anime adaptations of their most popular characters that included Wolverine, Blade, Iron Man, and the X-Men. Most of the series were connected by appearances from Wolverine: Anime's Logan, however X-Men: Anime was itself removed from the line and taken in a different direction.
While Deadpool only features in one episode of the series with a small non-speaking cameo, it reveals a lot about this version of the character. Deadpool, whose costume features the "x" insignia, appears alongside Nightcrawler when a psychic message from Professor Xavier is broadcast around the world, making him an official member of the X-Men in this animated universe.
7 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN
Deadpool's first animated speaking role on television happened on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Will Friedle (Batman Beyond). The character's humor was toned down for the kid-friendly animated series, and his backstory was also altered.
Deadpool was now a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had dropped out during training to become a mercenary instead. Deadpool also reveals that he used to be under Nick Fury's wing just like Spider-Man. It's important to note that the version of Deadpool that appeared on the animated series is not the same version as the Ultimate Deadpool who appeared in the Ultimate universe.
6 VIDEO GAMES
We feel like it's important to mention Deadpool's various appearances in the video game world as well, beginning with X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, where he was an unlockable character voiced by John Kassir. He would appear in the Ultimate Alliance franchise, the Marvel Vs. Capcom series voiced by Nolan North, who would reprise the role many times over the years.
Deadpool would get his own self-titled videogame as well full of mayhem and fourth-wall-breaking and has appeared as a playable character in many mobile games including Marvel: Future Fight and Marvel Strike Force. Deadpool most recently featured in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order voiced once again by Nolan North.
5 MARVEL DISK WARS: THE AVENGERS
Deadpool featured in a couple of episodes of another anime series, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers. This series is best described as an Avengers/Pokémon mashup, with some of the Avengers' most popular characters stuck in Digital Identity Securement Kits/DISKs that were connected to five kids who could release the heroes for short periods of time.
Deadpool was not a member of the Avengers and not trapped on a DISK, but his two appearances on the series feature a great version of the character. Deadpool not only calls out the ridiculousness of the show's premise, but he is also fully aware of his existence in the anime. Deadpool was originally voiced by Takehito Koyasu, with Jason Spisak taking over for the English dub.
4 HULK VS WOLVERINE
Marvel briefly dabbled in feature-length home release animated films to compete alongside DC Comics' original animated films, though after the release of a few they switched gears to focus more on motion comics. Thankfully, fans of Deadpool got to see the character appear in the Hulk Vs animated film, which featured two separate Hulk stories.
Hulk vs Wolverine saw a battle between the title characters interrupted by the Weapon X program's Team X, which included Deadpool, Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth and Omega Red. This animated version 0f Deadpool finally featured the wise-cracking mercenary fans had been waiting to see, though he hadn't quite found his heroic potential yet.
3 DEADPOOL 2
The sequel to the hit live-action debut of the merc-with-a-mouth featured the return of Ryan Reynolds to the role of Deadpool and introduced his own version of the X-Force team alongside new co-stars Cable (Josh Brolin) and Domino (Zazie Beetz).
Deadpool 2 featured a lot of the same magic that Ryan Reynolds brought to the first film's characterization of Deadpool, though his journey wasn't as gripping as the first film, and he was at times outshined by the other spinning plates in the film, like the standout performances from Cable and Domino.
2 DEADPOOL: NO GOOD DEED
This might be a controversial inclusion as some might consider it to be a trailer, but we'll be treating Deadpool: No Good Deed as a short film for our purposes here. No Good Deed aired in theaters before Logan and basically teased Deadpool 2 without featuring any footage from the film. It even included a Stan Lee cameo to further prove its short film status.
The short featured Ryan Reynolds/Wade Wilson as he attempted to change into his Deadpool costume to stop a mugging on the streets of New York. Mirroring Superman's iconic phone booth change, Deadpool struggles with his costume hilariously only to arrive too late to save anyone but still gives him a chance to plug his new movie. That's good clean Deadpool-style humor.
1 DEADPOOL
Finally, Deadpool was released, even though it was the film no one thought would ever get made after the bad taste left by X-Men Origins: Wolverine. However, following the release of the script and test footage that set the internet on fire, the film was greenlit and Ryan Reynolds was finally given the chance to bring the proper version of Deadpool to life on the big screen.
Deadpool was a bloody, action-packed R-rated film that poked fun at Fox's X-Men franchise while breathing new life into it at the same time. The film became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever and launched Deadpool to new levels of popularity that might have even kept the character alive following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox's properties.