Deadpool & Wolverine co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick know fans loved all the appearances in the billion-dollar film, but there was once a plan to bring back the heart of Marvel for this.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Reese and Wernick explain how they almost got Iron Man in their film, but recent Marvel news changed everything. IndieWire asked about the Jon Favreau cameo as Happy Hogan and poked to see if Robert Downey Jr. was once planned for the film. Now, some of the writers are spilling all the details.
Wernick explains, “We had wanted him to do a cameo. We had written that scene [to start] with Happy and Downey.” With Reese adding, “Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey. But he also wanted Favreau because they’re a great combo, and they were all in the scene together.”
Wernick notes that the changes to Marvel, like RDJ playing Doctor Doom, shook up their ideas: “Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about the 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.’ 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.”
Yes, the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom shook Marvel to its core, seeing that even the creators of Deadpool & Wolverine had to regroup. Without this cameo happening, IndieWire pressed on what was supposed to happen in this Iron Man meets Deadpool scene.
Reese gives a little context to what was supposed to happen. The writer notes, “It was a version of what you saw in the sense that he rejected Wade. 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.”
Reese adds, “And then Jon [Favreau] was, graciously, connected to it from the start. It worked out great. I mean, look, we would’ve loved to have Downey. 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.”
Would you have liked to see Robert Downey Jr. back as Tony Stark ahead of Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know on our socials @FlickeringMyth…
Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth, Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy) and stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman alongside Fox/Marvel veterans Jennifer Garner (Elektra), Stefan Kapacic (Colossus), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Leslie Uggams (Blind Al), Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio), Lewis Tan (Shatterstar), Rob Delaney (Peter), Aaron Stanford (Pyro), and Tyler Mane (Sabretooth) with new additions including Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) as Mr. Paradox and Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Cassandra Nova.
