BEIJING • Surgery can wait for Ryan Reynolds. The financial health of his movie Deadpool 2 is more important to him.

That is the attitude of the actor who postponed treatment in New York for an arm injury in order to fly to Beijing last Sunday to promote his superhero movie, trade publication Variety reported.

"It's been a dream of mine for years to bring Deadpool to China and Chinese audiences, so for me this is, uh, heaven on earth," he told fans at an event to whip up buzz for the PG13-rated movie.

The movie, unlike Reynolds, had to undergo "surgery" to remove elements that would fall foul of the strict censorship standards in China.

The original R-rated version blitzed cinemas in the United States about eight months ago.

Of his decision to skip surgery for the injury to his left arm that was sustained while shooting the movie, Reynolds said: "This was more important. I was not going to miss coming to China."

He did not say it, but the Chinese box office - the world's second-largest - is very important to Hollywood as it looks to recoup the bloated budgets linked to tentpole superhero movies.

But there is another "surgery" that Reynolds does not intend to delay any longer.

Stating that he and his team are currently plotting the next instalment of the Deadpool franchise, he revealed that they were "looking to go in a completely different direction".

"Often, they reboot or change a character maybe like four movies too late," he noted, not wanting such illfortune to fall on his character.