“The guys love each other almost as much as Ryan Reynolds and I love each other,” joked director Shawn Levy

Hugh Jackman, Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds at the world premiere of The Adam Project in New York City on Feb. 28, 2022. PHOTO: MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES

Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’s bromance isn’t just for the cameras.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times at the Toronto International Film Festival, Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy said the close-knit dynamic between the pair is “real.”

“It’s f—ing real,” said Levy, 55, joking, “The guys love each other almost as much as Ryan Reynolds and I love each other. Because that bromance is a tale for all time.”

Levy previously worked with Reynolds, 46, on Free Guy (2021) and The Adam Project (2022). The actor announced amid Free Guy‘s successful opening weekend that it would be getting a sequel.

In the meantime, Reynolds and Jackman, 54, are set to reprise their Marvel characters Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively, in the upcoming Deadpool 3.

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Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman film Deadpool 3 in London on July 11, 2023.CLICK NEWS AND MEDIA / BACKGRID

The movie began production in London in May, as The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time.

It’s expected to mark the title character’s full introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Reynolds and Jackman’s first time working together within a Marvel movie since Reynolds appeared as a different version of Deadpool in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Reynolds and Jackman first announced that Wolverine will appear in the next Deadpool movie back in September 2022, in a video shared on social media.

The pair also asserted that Wolverine’s next onscreen appearance will not jeopardize the character’s arc in past movies, which ended with Logan’s death in the Oscar-nominated Logan.

 

“Logan takes place in 2029, totally separate thing,” Reynolds said in a video about the movie shared that same month. “Logan died in Logan. Not touching that.”

Reynolds and Jackman have both spoken to PEOPLE about their appreciation for each other, with Reynolds saying in November that his friend had a big hand in helping him prepare for his song-and-dance numbers in his holiday comedy Spirited.

“He gave me some really good advice,” Reynolds said of Jackman, who has starred in musicals both onstage and on the big screen. “He said to make sure that you are enjoying it because if you enjoy it, we’ll enjoy it. And I thought that that was actually quite sage. It was very wise.”

The previous month, Jackman told PEOPLE of working with Reynolds on Deadpool 3, “I think being on set with [Ryan] every day and [our characters] on film in every city together every day … I think it’s fair to say they’ll be punching the s— out of each other the whole time.”

“All jokes aside, I’ll probably have more fun on this movie than any other I’ve ever done,” he added.

Deadpool 3 is currently slated to hit theaters May 3.