Credit: Inside the MagicOver 15 years since Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) first shared the big screen in the disastrous X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Marvel Studios is giving the duo the second chance they deserve – and today’s the day it hits theaters.
Both products of the X-Men franchise, there were fears that Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox (and subsequent inheritance of the rights to Deadpool and co.) would mean the end of Reynolds’ famously foul-mouthed, explicit, and all-round not-so-Disney Deadpool franchise.
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Fortunately, those fears were silenced when Reynolds confirmed that, together with director Shawn Levy, they were making the first R-rated film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even better, Jackman reached out to Reynolds in 2022 to confirm that he was interested in coming out of superhero retirement – with Wolverine technically having died in Logan (2017) – meaning the real-life besties would finally get an opportunity to be on-screen BFFs. (Well, in Deadpool’s mind, at least).
Adding to the hype was the revelation that it would make use of the Multiverse. This is nothing new in the MCU, with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both appearing as Peter Parker variants in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), courtesy of the plot device. However, with the X-Men universe and MCU colliding, the list of possible Deadpool 3 cameos suddenly grew much, much longer – and much more exciting.
In the months leading up to the film’s release, it feels like everyone from Spider-Man to Harry Potter was rumored to appear in Deadpool & Wolverine. Having now seen the film, we can confirm that some of the rumors were correct – and some were way, way off base.
On the bright side, the cameos that we did get were more than satisfactory. Here’s a full list of the film’s most exciting cameos, ranked by pure hype.
Warning: the rest of this article will contain a lot (and we mean a lot) of spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine. Read ahead at your own risk.
11. Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu)
With her long adamantium fingernails, Lady Deathstrike looks as awesome as ever in Deadpool & Wolverine. Sadly, that’s pretty much all she gets to do.
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Just like X2 (2003) – where she was a brainwashed assistant for military scientist Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox) – she works for the bad guy in the film (Emma Corrin’s wonderful Cassandra Nova). Her scenes mostly consist of being menacing, which she does well, but we’re sure there’s much more that could have been done with the character.
On the plus side, Wolverine doesn’t inject with molten adamantium metal this time around, so… Bonus points, we guess?
10. Azazel (Jason Flemyng)
Again, like Lady Deathstrike, Azazel – a member of the Hellfire Club with the ability to teleport – gets a little lost in the crowd of Cassandra Nova’s other henchmen. He looks as demon-like as he did in X-Men: First Class (2011), which ended with him joining Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants.
His appearance in the film elicits a quick, “Oh, cool, it’s him,” but sadly (or not so sadly for us, the audience), there were much more exciting cameos to be had in its 128-minute runtime.
9. John Allerdyce/Pyro (Aaron Stanford)
Stanford previously played John Allerdyce, a mutant with the ability to control (but not create) fire, in X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), with his character shouldering a hefty grudge against his former friend Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman (Shawn Ashmore).
This time around, Pyro is a lackey to Cassandra Nova. At least, that’s what you think, with the character later revealed as a double agent for the TVA’s Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen). His time in the film was a little bit more substantial than some of the former X-Men, which was exciting, plus it was great to see him get his dues in the action scenes. A solid cameo – but not quite as spectacular as what’s to follow.
8. Lady Deadpool (Blake Lively)
First thing first: no, Lady Deadpool is not Taylor Swift. Yes, we were disappointed, too – and even more disappointed when Lady Deadpool never actually revealed her face.
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Despite the lack of a face reveal, it’s pretty obvious from the voice that Lady Deadpool is Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds’ real-life wife. Best known for her stint as Serena Van Der Woodsen in The CW drama Gossip Girl, Lively is no stranger to the superhero genre; after all, the set of Green Lantern (2011) was where she met her now-husband.
Exciting though it would’ve been to see Lively unmasked as a Deadpool variant, we’re pretty this would’ve disrupted the flow of the film considering the context of her cameo. However, we’re sure it would’ve been as fourth-wall-breaking as other mentions of Lively in the film, such as the moment in which Deadpool quips, “There are 206 bones in my body — 207 if I’m watching Gossip Girl.”
Lively is also explicitly mentioned by name later in the film when Cassandra puts her hand through Deadpool’s skull to explore his memories of his beloved ex-girlfriend, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), to which Wade Wilson shouts, “Get your mind out of my pants — I’m telling Blake!”
Another more subtle Lively reference comes when Nicepool (who’s also played by Reynolds, but with a wig, no prosthetics, and a strong Canadian accent) first mentions Ladypool, noting, “Wait ’til you see Ladypool, she is gorgeous! She just had a baby and you can’t even tell.” When Deadpool & Wolverine started filming in 2023, Lively had just given birth to her and Reynolds’ fourth child, Olin.
7. Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner)
It’s been nearly 20 years since Jennifer Garner last graced our screens as the assassin Elektra Natchios. While she only got two outings as the character – once in Daredevil (2003) and again in Elektra (2005) – and neither films were particularly well received by critics, there was still plenty of hype around rumors that she’d reappear in Deadpool & Wolverine.
(Speaking of which, this cameo would’ve ranked much higher if Garner’s cameo had remained a surprise. However, Garner’s return was very publicly rumored for months).
Her appearance in the film is everything fans could have hoped for. Now a member of the “Others,” a group of discarded superheroes, in the Void, she’s operating solo since Matt Murdock (who was portrayed by Garner’s ex-husband Ben Affleck) seemingly died off-screen. The highlight of her cameo comes via a dryly delivered jab at Affleck, with Deadpool offering his condolences for Daredevil’s death and Elektra dismissing him with, “It’s fine.”
6. Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau)
Deadpool’s adventures on Earth-616 (AKA the MCU where he considers himself “Marvel Jesus”) come at a point in the timeline where, theoretically, he should’ve been able to meet Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) as it occurred pre-Avengers: Endgame (2019). However, as Deadpool points out, he doesn’t do cameos anymore.
Instead, we get the next best thing: Happy Hogan. Stark’s former chauffeur turned head of security rejects Deadpool’s request to join the Avengers, delivering a blow to his self-esteem so heavy that it sets up the entirety of Deadpool & Wolverine.
While Happy isn’t a full-blown Avenger (even if he does describe himself as “Avenger adjacent” in the film), Favreau is a long-term MCU mainstay – if not one of its kingpins, having directed as well as starred in its very first installment, Iron Man (2008).
He may have jumped ship to Star Wars recently, where he’ll soon direct The Mandalorian & Grogu, but his appearance is still a nice surprise and one that makes it very clear that while Deadpool may not be an Avenger, he has made it to the big leagues of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
5. Laura Kinney/X-23 (Dafne Keen)
Again, this cameo would’ve ranked much higher if it had remained a surprise. (Whoever decided to include her appearance in the trailer, we’d like a word).
Regardless of spoilers, it only seems right that X-23 appears in Deadpool & Wolverine. It was for her that Wolverine sacrificed himself at the end of Logan, and her appearance helps nudge along this variant’s development towards realizing that he is, in fact, a good man.
Once upon a time, Keen was supposed to lead her own spinoff. This ultimately slipped between the cracks when Marvel bought out 21st Century Fox. Her inclusion – and her point of her and the rest of the “Others” wanting to finish their stories – is one of the things that works so well in Deadpool & Wolverine‘s many, many meta references to the pitfalls of franchises and development hell.
4. Eric Brook/Blade (Wesley Snipes)
Who knows when the MCU will introduce its version of Blade (we’re rooting for you, Mahershala Ali), but in the meantime we have Wesley Snipes’ version back on the big screen. Between 1998 and 2004, he played the Daywalker and vampire hunter in three films.
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Fans have long loved his take on the character, so his cameo was always going to be a hit. In true Deadpool fashion, it was the meta jokes that really made it sing. Snipes famously hated working with Reynolds on the third Blade film, Blade: Trinity (2004), thanks in no small part to the actor’s improvisational sense of humor. (Reason number infinity why Ryan Reynolds is the perfect actor to play Deadpool).
Never one to resist a quip, Reynolds explicitly hinted at their rivalry when Blade noted that he does not like Deadpool, and the antihero casually replied, “You never liked me.”
Snipes also managed to get a dig in at his successor as Blade. While he’s praised Ali as an actor in the past, Snipes poked fun at the ongoing behind-the-scenes trouble with getting Blade off the ground earlier this year, posting on X, “Blade, lordylordylordy folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough,” Snipes wrote. “Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”
Blade, lordylordylordy 👀 folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough.
Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they? 😊#DaywalkerKlique #Blade #Marvel pic.twitter.com/YZVAqg9egz
— Wesley Snipes (@wesleysnipes) June 16, 2024
His character gets another chance to assert his claim over the role in Deadpool & Wolverine, in which Snipes remarks that there is only one Blade – and there’s only going to be one Blade. (Which, if this production hell continues, may very well be true).
3. Cavillrine (Henry Cavill)
Now this is a cameo we didn’t see coming.
While hopping around the Multiverse trying to find a version of Wolverine willing to return with him to his universe, Deadpool comes across a variant of the superhero who is very much not played by Hugh Jackman.
Instead, this version of Wolverine is portrayed by none other than Henry Cavill, who famously played Superman in several films from DC Studios. At least, that was the case until the actor was publicly and messily dropped from the franchise – just after Cavill joyfully announced his plans to return – when James Gunn took over creative control of DC and decided to start again with a blank slate.
It’s not like we’ve never heard Cavill’s name connected to Wolverine before. His appearance follows years and years of rumors and headcanons of him replacing Jackman when (or, to be more accurate, if) he decides to retire from the role.
The cameo was definitely there for fan service, but it also served as the setup for one of the film’s funniest digs. “We’ll treat you so much better than those a**holes down the street,” Deadpool quips upon realizing it’s Cavill.
2. Remy LeBeau/Gambit (Channing Tatum)
Channing Tatum’s Gambit plays just as large a role as Elektra, Blade, and X-23 in Deadpool & Wolverine, but if audiences walk out of the film talking about one of those characters, we’re willing to bet it’s him.
Unlike his “Others” co-stars, Tatum’s never actually played Gambit before. But that’s not for lack of trying. Tatum’s been linked to the role for nearly 20 years, and in the early 2010s, it was confirmed that he would replace Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit – a mutant with the ability to control kinetic energy – in a solo installment of the X-Men universe, which he would have also produced.
“Gambit’s my favorite,” Tatum said in 2013. “I’m from New Orleans, around that area. My dad’s from New Orleans, and I like to do a Cajun accent. I could do it for real.”
Sadly, Disney officially canceled the film in 2019 after inheriting it and all of its development hell. Five years later, Tatum finally has a chance to give the role a whirl – including LeBeau’s iconic Cajun accent, which is (intentionally) unintelligible. His entire cameo is hilarious, but the pinnacle is Reynolds’ cutting remark, “Who is your dialect coach? The Minions?”
1. Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Chris Evans)
Was anybody else ever going to come first?
There were whispers for months that Marvel was bringing Chris Evans back into the fold. The actor famously spent nearly a decade playing Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America – the beating heart of the Avengers who decided to retire from superhero life and grow old with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in Avengers: Endgame.
Evans has remained coy about whether he’d ever return as Captain America, stressing that he left the role in a good place and doesn’t want to taint the character’s legacy. He’s not quite as precious about his other, lesser-known Marvel Universe role of Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch, in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).
The character’s return is played perfectly in the film. His voice precedes his appearance, as does Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme, leading audiences (and Deadpool) to think that Captain America has returned, only for Evans to utter the iconic catchphrase “flame on” and catch fire instead.
Nearly as foul-mouthed as Deadpool himself, Johnny Storm couldn’t be more different from the clean-cut, all-American hero Evans popularized in the MCU. His cameo is a real treat – particularly his expletive-filled return in the post-credits scene – but brief. As Deadpool points out, he was probably eating up the budget.
What was your favorite Marvel character cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine?