Ryan Reynolds loved portraying Deadpool's dark "humour" in the upcoming superhero film.

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds

Reynolds plays Wade Wilson and his alter ego in the movie which tells the story of his transformation into the titular hero, following the use of an experimental cancer treatment on him when he signs up for the Weapon X programme.

Dedapool is known from the Marvel comics to be adept at dishing out sarcastic and stinging insults and Ryan enjoyed bringing out that part of his personality - used as a coping mechanism due to his unstable mind and injuries caused by the experiment that gave him his super powers.

He said: "I've always loved his caustic wit. I love the idea of humour as a terrible coping mechanism for other things."

The plot of 'Deadpool' also follows the love story between Wade and Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) who is a prostitute when they first meet and becomes Copycat, while Ed Skrein plays Ajax - who is another product of the failed Weapon X super-soldier programme and the villain who is sent to capture Deadpool.

And Reynolds was impressed that Skrein was able to bring some humanity to Ajax.

Ryan told Total Film magazine: "The hardest thing about playing a villain is trying to play a villain. A villain is really just someone with an opposing conviction, not necessarily a guy who's brought to this Earth to do evil. He (Skrein) really brought some humanity to Ajax, and really created a character that you just want Deadpool to kill so badly."

The Tim Miller-directed movie is intended to be the eighth instalment in the 'X-Men' film series and is set for release in February.