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Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine is set to be one of the biggest movies of the summer, the long-awaited team-up of the iconic superheroes played by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.
But even with those two movie stars headlining the film, there’s another cast member who has been winning hearts everywhere: Peggy, a canine who was dubbed the “ugliest dog” but is now walking the red carpet.
Peggy, a 5-year-old pug and Chinese Crested mix, was named “Britain’s ugliest dog” last year after winning a contest held by a photography company Parrot Print.
With her tuft of white hair and permanently stuck-out tongue, it’s safe to say that Peggy isn’t your conventionally cute dog, but she has a great heart and doesn’t let anything bring her down.
“We tend to forget Peggy isn’t your standard looking dog and we are very aware some people would refer to Peggy as ugly,” owner Holly Middleton, who adopted Peggy in 2018 when she was the last of her litter, told BBC.
“We loved her the Instant we laid eyes on her with her big brown eyes, little tuft of white hair and her tongue lolling out to one side,” Peggy recalled. “I just felt sorry for her, sat there with no hair and her tongue out… She was six months old so I just felt like no one wanted her.”
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“Even though some people find Peggy’s unusual appearance strange, and in rare cases off-putting, and despite Peggy winning the ugliest dog in the UK title, we think she is beautiful both inside and out, and wouldn’t change her for the world.”
As a prize for winning the contest, Peggy won a day at a doggy spa and a photo session. On top of that, Peggy became an unlikely media star, winning the hearts of people around the world.
And one of her admirers was Ryan Reynolds, who saw a potential movie star in the odd-looking pup.
Deadpool & Wolverine will introduce the character “Dogpool,” a canine version of the quippy superhero, and Reynolds realized Peggy was the perfect choice, calling her casting a “stroke of luck.”
“The reason why I was a huge proponent for her was because she feels like the animal manifestation of Wade Wilson,” the actor told Empire. Wade Wilson is the alter ego of Deadpool, whose face is disfigured underneath his mask.
“It’s love at first sight. He loves Dogpool,” Reynolds said of his character.
Reynolds also said that his children “instantly fell in love with Peggy” on set, and that she was “treated like a queen, as she should be.”
While Peggy might be sweet and easygoing in real life, Reynolds implied that her character might get into some shocking antics in the film, par for the course for this gleefully profane and colorfully violent superhero series.
“Avoid petting her too vigorously. You’ll see why in a couple weeks,” Reynolds wrote on Instagram.
READ MORE: Mark Wahlberg says he “fell in love” with his dog co-star, tried to buy him from trainer
Bringing Peggy on stage at a screening, Reynolds called her “really, truly amazing” and joked that she went through more training than Hugh Jackman. “That tongue, by the way, is real,” he told the audience.
Seeing Peggy walk the red carpet with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, it’s hard not to marvel at how amazing and unlikely her life story is.
“A few years ago I was at the shelter wondering what I was going to do with my life. Now I’m in the biggest movie of the summer,” Peggy’s official Dogpool Instagram reads. “Goes to show when you put in the work, you can manifest anything.”
Peggy’s owner says she hopes the underdog story “encourages people to overlook the little oddities of those dogs left on the shelf.”
“From the moment Peggy arrived, she’s been a beloved addition to our family,” Holly told Parrot Print. “She has grown up alongside our two boys and is the most loving, laid back and gentle dog we could ever ask for.”
You can see Peggy on the big screen when Deadpool & Wolverine is released on July 26.
A Hollywood story for the ages — Peggy defied the odds to be one of the summer’s biggest movie stars! Move over, Ryan and Hugh, there’s a new star in town.
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