Two weeks on, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) continues dominating the box office and the world’s media. If people thought that chatter before the movie’s release was heavy, new information has come to light that proves the discussion is not over.
From the immense success of Shawn Levy’s movie to the cast and the faces that didn’t make the cut, read on to learn about Ryan Reynolds’ firing from a Deadpool role and the report of Robert Downey Jr. being cut.
The Rise of Deadpool in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Since The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox, including 20th Century Studios, Ryan Reynolds has been focused on bringing his character, Deadpool, into Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Initially, Marvel Studios planned to introduce mutants into the MCU before developing another Deadpool film.
However, Reynolds pitched Deadpool 3 multiple times to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, leading to the development of a new movie under Disney’s direction. This project, directed by Shawn Levy, evolved into what has been described as a “radical reboot” of the Deadpool franchise, especially after Hugh Jackman joined the cast as Wolverine, turning the film into a two-hander character adventure.
While still under Fox, Deadpool 3 was expected to be a quieter chapter for the Merc—as writers Rhett Reese and Pete Wernick shared in 2017—while the studio focused on bringing the X-Force movie to fruition.
Deadpool franchise actor Karan Soni, who plays Dopinder in all three movies, revealed earlier this year that Deadpool 3 was to feature Dopinder and Wade Wilson traversing to the North Pole to save Christmas.
With Deadpool 3 scrapped, the road was clear for Deadpool & Wolverine, a completely contrasting event compared to the threequel’s original plan. Shawn Levy’s film would go on to become exceedingly more important than ever before, not least for the pressure it faced to bring audiences back into theaters.
, a significant theme in the current MCU. This allowed for numerous cameos from both familiar and surprising characters, such as Jennifer Garner’s Elektra Natchios, Wesley Snipes’ Eric Brooks/Blade, Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and many others.
Hugh Jackman may have reprised his role as the many Variants of Wolverine, but one was performed by another familiar face–Henry Cavill.
Appearing as the “Cavillrine,” Cavill’s casting—who has long been rumored to take on the part at some point in the MCU’s future—follows the trajectory of Sam Raimi having John Krasinski play Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Krasinski had also been fan-cast as the Fantastic Four character for many years before his cameo appearance as part of Earth-838’s Illuminati line-up.
The film’s Multiversal approach allowed for various characters to appear, enhancing the narrative’s complexity and fan appeal. A tactic that was successful with Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) almost three years ago.
In addition to Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman starring as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and Logan/Wolverine, respectively, Emma Corrin as new villain Cassandra Nova, and the above cameos, the film featured a slew of familiar faces from the Deadpool franchise
Leslie Uggams (Blind Al), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa Carlysle), Rob Delaney (Peter Wisdom), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio), Stefan Kapičić (Colossus), and Lewis Tan (Shatterstar) all starred in the movie.
The film’s Multiversal concept allowed many characters to enter Disney’s live-action universe and introduced multiple new mechanics.
and the film does include the Multiversal element. An Anchor Being is a person from a universe who, upon their death, causes that universe to begin to die. As Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox says in the film, the death of the world can take thousands of years.
Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Box Office
Deadpool & Wolverine quickly became a box office sensation, breaking pre-sale records for an R-rated film and grossing $590 million within its first five days. The film has continued to perform strongly and, with its haul of $903 million, will cross the $1 billion mark globally by week’s end.
It has set a new record as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Its success places it among the top domestic releases of 2024, alongside major films like Inside Out 2 and Dune: Part Two.
Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2, another Disney property, became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, usurping the title previously held by the Mouse House’s Frozen II (2019). The Pixar sequel currently sits at $1.55 billion globally, with $630 million domestically and $929 million from international markets, per Box Office Mojo.
As for Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s return to the world of Arrakis was a big win for Warner Bros., with Timothée Chalamet’s blockbuster netting $711 million worldwide, up $300 million on Dune‘s (2021) $403 million from three years ago.
New Information Comes To Light About Deadpool & Wolverine
Even after the movie’s debut, new information is still surfacing regarding the comic book blockbuster. Director Shawn Levy recently revealed on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast that Ryan Reynolds was fired from one Deadpool role.
“Ryan in early cuts was the voice of Cowboypool,” Levy said when discussing the many Deadpool Variants featured as part of the Deadpool Corps. “He did the greatest Cowboypool, and I implored him to let us use his voice as Cowboypool.”
“I feel like, eventually, he was like, ‘Okay, fine, we’ll stick with my voice unless we can get someone like Matthew McConaughey,” the director shared. “Literally, days later, Matthew sent us that recording. It was so good and dropped in like butter.”
“Ryan, you’re fired as Cowboypool. Matthew, you’re in,” he concluded.
A significant highlight of Deadpool & Wolverine was the introduction of multiple Deadpool variants, collectively known as the Deadpool Corps. These variants included characters like Lady Deadpool/Ladypool, voiced by Blake Lively, and other playful iterations like Nicepool and Dogpool, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds and Peggy the Dog, respectively.
Reynolds and Lively’s children, Inez and Olin, played Kidpool and Babypool with his other friends and associates, like Paul Mullin of Wrexham A.F.C. playing Welshpool. Reynolds owns the Wrexham football club with fellow actor Rob McElhenney.
Following the news of Ryan Reynolds’ “firing,” new information has surfaced regarding the movie’s content in early script editions.
Related: Wesley Snipes Shares “Cancel Mahershala Ali Blade Movie” Post on Social Media
Speaking IndieWire, writers Rhett Reese and Pete Wernick revealed that Reynolds originally wanted both Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark to appear in the movie.
“Ryan Reynolds read the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey,” Reese said. “But he also wanted Favreau because they’re a great combo, and they were all in the scene together.”
As Comic Book reported:
“Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about Doctor Doom. And there’s no way he was going to do both. And then we said, ‘Oh, Downey doesn’t say ‘no’ to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds.'” Wernick wondered. “And Ryan gave him the hard press. We wrote scenes, and Downey read the scenes, but what we didn’t know behind the scenes was this Doctor Doom thing.”
Even more information came to light on how this cameo would have come to be.
“It was a version of what you saw in the sense that [Tony Stark] rejected Wade,” Reese said. “He just said he wasn’t a team player or whatever and questioned his team-player abilities. So it was actually pretty close to the scene that you saw. It just had two guys instead of one.”
In the end, the recent reveal of Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the franchise as a completely new character was what kept the final writers of Deadpool & Wolverine from keeping this ending, as they stated:
“But, at the same time, I think Marvel had this ace in their hole, which is he’s about to come back in this different character. So, to have him be Tony Stark? Knowing that Doctor Doom was coming on the heels of that? It just didn’t make sense.”
Robert Downey Jr. Returns to the MCU
While Deadpool & Wolverine enjoyed its record-breaking opening weekend, Marvel Studios returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con.
There, Kevin Feige confirmed that Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, also known as the Russo Brothers, would rejoin the billion-dollar franchise to direct the Phase Six Avengers films—Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).
The pair previously helmed the successful Phase Two and Phase Three entries, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Avengers: Doomsday is the reworked fifth Avengers movie, originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and internally referred to as Avengers 5. With the new subtitle Doomsday, it became evident that the iconic Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom would replace Kang the Conqueror as the primary antagonist.
And it would be Robert Downey Jr. to star as the fan-favorite character.
Kang was, of course, initially presented in the first season of Michael Waldron’s Loki, starring tenured MCU actor Tom Hiddleston as the titular God of Mischief. Jonathan Majors brought the Kang Variant, He Who Remains, to life before going on to star as a more formidable Kang in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).
However, Kang’s journey in the MCU would be short-lived thanks to the arrest, trial, and subsequent guilty verdict sentencing of Majors. The rising star, who had also just appeared in Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III (2023), was charged with domestic abuse after allegations made by his former partner, Grace Jabbari.
While he still appeared in Loki Season 2 as another Variant, Victor Timely, Marvel Studios confirmed that the actor would be ousted following the guilty verdict in December 2023.
Majors recently spoke on Robert Downey Jr.’s casting as Doom and his replacement as the antagonist moving forward, saying he was “heartbroken.”
Related: Marvel Fires “Activist Producers” in Preparation for MCU Back-To-Basics Reboot, Report
Given Doctor Doom’s significance as a well-known and beloved villain, Marvel Studios obviously thought a major star would be the secret sauce to lasso audiences back into movie theaters. RDJ may have made his legacy as Tony Stark and Iron Man for over a decade, but his new chapter will be as one of the most famous villains in comic book history. Even if not everyone wants it.
What do you think of these Deadpool & Wolverine revelations? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
