Until the enormous success of KPop Demon Hunters dethroned it, the most-watched movie on Netflix was Red Notice, the action-comedy that starred Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson. It’s a movie that sees Reynolds take some major jabs at his massive co-star, but Reynolds admitted it’s not the sort of thing he would do under any circumstances in real life because The Rock could kill him.
Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival in support of the John Candy documentary John Candy: I Like Me, which he produced, ET pointed out that Dwayne Johnson was also at TIFF promoting The Smashing Machine, and reminded the comedian of the time Reynolds’ character compared DJ’s head to a penis. Reynolds laughed and said…
It was terrible! No, I was just messing with him because, you know, he could beat the crap out of me with his eyelash, so I will only say something as long as I think I can get away with it.
While Dwayne Johnson usually comes across like a guy who can take a joke, as Reynolds said, he could absolutely destroy most people without even having to try. So while poking fun at him probably wouldn’t get you killed, you need to make absolutely sure that The Rock is going to get the joke and won’t get upset.
While Ryan Reynolds didn’t write Red Notice, there’s a decent chance, like many of the jokes in the Deadpool movies, that Reynolds came up with this jab himself. What’s unclear is whether Dwayne Johnson knew what his co-star was going to say. Johnson likely approved of the joke, which is one way to make sure he won’t hurt you. Check out the scene in question below.
Of course, remembering the time that Ryan Reynolds completely roasted his co-star in Red Notice makes one wonder when we’re going to get to see more of that. Red Notice 2 was announced following the first film’s massive success, but we’ve heard very little about it since then.
One of the possible reasons for that is that the cost of Red Notice 2 is likely to be quite high. Johnson, Reynolds and fellow co-star Gal Gadot made a reported $80 million together on a film that had an estimated budget of $200 million. Compare that to something like KPop Demon Hunters, which cost something like half as much, and yet ultimately saw more views. Red Notice 2 would have to guarantee a lot of Netflix subscriptions to justify its cost.
Whether Red Notice 2 would become the most watched movie ever on Netflix or not, the first movie’s success with audiences indicates a sequel would at least be warmly received. Ryan Reynolds would get a chance to poke fun at Dwayne Johnson again without risking getting killed for it.
