Ryan Reynolds cancels arm surgery to promote ‘Deadpool 2’ in China

Canadian-American actor and filmmaker Ryan Reynolds suddenly landed in Beijing on Sunday to promote the PG-13 edited version of “Deadpool 2,” after canceling planned surgery in New York.

It was last week when the 20th Century Fox suddenly announced the new, re-edited PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2” would hit the Chinese market on January 25.

“It’s been a dream of mine for years to bring ‘Deadpool’ to China and to Chinese audiences, so, for me, this is, uh, heaven on earth,” Ryan Reynolds told his fans in Beijing.

Reynolds revealed that he had injured his left arm while filming, and was scheduled to have surgery on the injury in New York on Sunday morning. However, learning he had the chance to visit China, he decided to skip the appointment.

“This was more important. I was not going to miss coming to China,” he said.

The import of “Deadpool 2” to China came as a surprise for many industry observers and fans since the original was extremely blood-splattered and full of bad language that could not possibly have survived local Chinese censorship.

Somehow, a “clean” version, after cutting out R-rated scenes and reshooting some new scenes to be inserted, was produced and renamed “Once Upon a Deadpool” in the United States where it was released during Christmas season. This version was able to easily won the approval from Chinese film authorities without the need for any further cuts.

For China release, the film’s Chinese title is literally “Deadpool 2: I Love My Family,” which has been amusingly borrowed from the subtitle from a hugely popular local Chinese family sitcom broadcast in the 1990s.