UPDATE 9/4: A viral post is now hammering Reynolds over the comments — “Ryan Reynolds wasn’t American, wasn’t an adult in the ’80s.”
Ryan Reynolds is not walking back what he said about the 1980s. He’s making Freddy Krueger jokes about it.
A day after his comments about the decade blew up, Reynolds posted a photo of an Elm Street street sign on X with one line: “I guess my street was different.”
The post pulled 164,000 views in its first three hours.
“A Brutal, Brutal Time”
The comments came from the same Variety interview at Tuesday night’s Mayday premiere where Reynolds reacted to The Odyssey taking Deadpool & Wolverine’s R-rated record.
Talking about the 1980s setting of the new movie, Reynolds said nostalgia works “almost like you pave over all the trauma with puppy dogs and ice cream.”
“The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people,” Reynolds continued, calling the decade a “f—ing mess” people forget.
He pointed to the strife and sociopolitical tensions of the era, noting the Cuban Missile Crisis was only 15 to 20 years in the rearview, and said people look back now like, “Oh, yeah. ‘Top Gun.’ Cocaine!” when it was really scary.
The Backlash
Fox News wrote up the comments Thursday, and the reaction ran hot.
Dan Bongino posted that Reynolds “doesn’t know jack sh*t about the 1980s in America,” writing that he was a teenager when the decade ended and it was an incredible time to be alive, pointing to the Miracle on Ice, Reagan’s economic growth, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Spencer Pratt told Reynolds to “stick to the Cricket wireless ads, dude,” writing that Hollywood is its own worst enemy.
Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele called the take another swing and a miss, saying the ’80s were special and innocent compared to what kids are subjected to today.
Jennifer Sey went after the Cuban Missile Crisis line specifically, posting that nobody in the ’80s was talking or worrying about it.
Film critic Christian Toto called the remarks stunning, noting Reynolds was 9 years old and living in Canada in 1986 — and that Mayday itself is “a love letter to the 1980s.”
Freddy Has Two Movies Coming
Reynolds’ answer to all of it was the street sign. Elm Street is Freddy Krueger’s home turf in Wes Craven’s 1984 slasher, so on Reynolds’ block, the ’80s really were a nightmare.
The joke also lands while Freddy is one of the most fought-over properties in Hollywood.
Two rival A Nightmare on Elm Street movies are in development: Paramount’s Primal label is making one set in the world of the original 1984 story, while Warner Bros. is developing a competing Freddy movie with Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin.
Reynolds also said Tuesday night he would “totally” do a Lanterns cameo.
His new movie Mayday, with Kenneth Branagh, streams Friday, September 4 on Apple TV.
