Ryan Reynolds Says Wolverine ‘Could Have Just As Easily’ Been a Honey Badger

There’s a scene in the premiere of Underdogs where Ryan Reynolds makes a brutal tongue-in-cheek joke at the expense of his MCU colleague Hugh Jackman. The first episode of the Nat Geo show delves into the lives of the so-called “superzeroes” of the animal world: uncelebrated oddballs who nevertheless possess some pretty breakthaking abilities.

We see a wild “aye-aye” lemur tapping its finger to locate grubs inside a tree, a jewel wasp mind-controlling an unsuspecting cockroach, and a fleeting glimpse of a wolverine, whose name Reynolds humorously claims derives from the “antiquated Canadian word” for “boring millionaire.” Speaking exclusively with IGN, Reynolds, who serves as the Executive Producer and narrator of the series, won’t say if he’s heard from Jackman about the bit.

“They certainly captured the weasel family, the wolverine being among the largest of the weasel family,” Reynolds jokes. “But I feel like you could have just as easily gone with a honey badger as one of the primary X-Men. Honey badgers are unkillable. These are very tough creatures. You can just really do a lot of damage to one of them and it will keep getting up. I'm not entirely in charge of how the universe unfolds at Marvel, (but) I wouldn't mind Hugh switching things up and just going with straight-up honey badger next time.”

In fact, the first episode of Underdogs shows how virtually indestructible the honey badger actually is. For the first time on camera, the show captures the animal surviving an attack by a pack of wild dogs.

When asked if he thought a movie starring Jackman-as-honey badger would be a box office success, Reynolds agrees. “Let's do this," he says. “Come on. From your lips to God’s ears. Or Kevin Feige’s.”

But wolverines and honey badgers aren’t the only “superzeroes” with ties to the MCU, at least in Reynolds’s mind. He doesn’t hesitate when naming the creature he himself has the most affinity for. “Well, I think I'd be remiss to not say the axolotl,” Reynolds says of the endangered salamander featured in the Underdogs premiere. “I mean the axolotl regenerates. It's Deadpool basically. That right there is a superhero. I don't care if it's slow, small, cute. It doesn't matter. That is a superhero.”

Each of the series’ five episodes (which also includes a newly-written theme song by Green Day) features a unique visual style. Episode 1 uses comic book graphics and visuals to highlight the abilities of each “superzero” animal.

“The entire episode was engineered in that comic book fashion, but they change every week,” Reynolds says. “But National Geographic is the last place on Earth that I'm going to give visual notes to. Their ability to photograph moments that happen in Mother Nature that most would wait years after year to just capture in a slight glancing blow with your camera – they seem to get right there at the right time in the right way. So I have such respect for how they frame these visuals. It's so beautiful.”

Underdogs premieres June 15 on Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic, and ABC.