“Deadpool & Wolverine” was the second biggest movie of the year, following “Inside Out 2,” but it could have been even bigger. The highest-grossing R-rated movie ever globally, it raked in 1.3 billion this year worldwide, became the 18th highest-grossing film of all time, and became the sixth highest-grossing Marvel movie ever, only bested by four “Avengers” films and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
Filled to the brim with cameos, of course, Chris Evans as the Human Torch, Channing Tatum as Gambit, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Jennifer Garner as Elektra and more, there were definitely more cameos on the table in early drafts.
Now, Ryan Reynolds has flirted around this a little bit, but in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast, Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and director Shawn Levy confirmed that in early drafts of the script, they wanted to include Ben Affleck’s Daredevil and Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider.
“They were in early drafts,” Reynolds, also a writer and executive producer on “Deadpool & Wolverine,” confirms they tried to get Affleck and Cage. “We had versions of that [sequence], but then as it shook out, you’re sort of looking… We’re trying to make the movie responsibly, as well. It’s a big budget. It’s the biggest budget of any of the ‘Deadpool’ movies, but you want to give yourself as much constraint, which really, I think, facilitates asymmetrical thinking and creativity. If you have too much time or too much money, it usually murders that kind of creativity. So, yeah, you’re shrinking things.”
“But we did talk to Nic Cage,” Reynolds continues. “We tried to get him, but he was a no-go…. I would’ve loved him.”
“Luckily, we got a lot of yeses,” Levy adds. Those yeses included Snipes, Garner, Evans, Henry Cavill (the Cavill-rine Wolverine variant), and Dafne Keen (X-23/Laura). “Mostly because Ryan would just call them directly,” the filmmaker explained. “He’d often do an ambush FaceTime and put them on the spot.”
Speaking of those cameos, Reynolds has also been kind of teasing more Channing Tatum as Gambit in the MCU. In the same podcast, the actor says Marvel is “obsessed” with his performance as Gambit, and that bodes well for the future.
“I honestly don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in the bookkeeping sessions at Marvel, but I do know that they’re obsessed with him in that role,” Reynolds says of Tatum’s Cajun card-slinging mutant and “X-Men” member. “It’s kind of like the same situation I went through. Once you show that it works well, that’s really what they need. Sometimes they need to see it in action.”
So Reynolds is hoping the Gambit appearance in ‘DP&W’ could be a proof of concept for more.
“I hope so,” he said about more Gambit appearances.” Channing is so singular in how he plays that character,” Reynolds continues, “but also he’s so beautiful physically, the way he moves and the way he can pick up steps.”
“Deadpool and Wolverine” hits Disney+ on November 12. Listen to the full podcast below.
