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Why didn't Colin Farrell, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash, and more return Deadpool & Wolverine? The writers said Marvel Studios never asked them
Deadpool & Wolverine gave a lot of pre-MCU characters a finale - but not all of them
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One of the most talked-about moments of Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine was the cavalcade of cameos and full-on returns of Fox-era Marvel actors to their old roles, with everyone from Chris Evans as the Human Torch to Jessica Garner as Elektra showing up... as well as Wesley Snipes as Blade, Tyler Mane as Sabretooth, and even Aaron Stanford as Pyro. But with all of that, Marvel Studios also resurrected some other Fox-era Marvel characters - but quietly recast all the roles.
And now in a post-release interview with two of the movie's screenwriters, Rhett Rheese and Paul Werneck, it turns out that Marvel didn't even ask some of these characters' original actors to return like their colleagues Garner, Snipes, and more. Even despite them being notable names such as Colin Farrell, Olivia Munn, Ken Lueng, and Kevin Nash.
When asked about return of old characters and who turned them down, the screenwriters said no one did except for Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man - who they decided not to recast.
"I mean, Downey was the only 'no' we’ve ever gotten, I think, in terms of people just saying, 'Hey, I don’t want to do it,'" Reese tells IndieWire.
The writers did say there was conversations internally about approaching Ben Affleck to reprise his role as Daredevil, but it wasn't followed up on.
"He was on the list, but I don’t think it ever came into script pages or actually asking him," says Reese.
Wernick goes on to say that "we had access to just about everybody," and that the goal was to give a legacy to "people or characters who didn’t get their proper ending at Fox..."
Here's a list of all the recast characters, along with the actors who portrayed them and then their original actor in parenthesis:
- Juggernaut by Aaron W. Reed (VInnie Jones)
- The Blob by Mike Waters (Kevin Durand)
- Azazel by Eduardo Gago Munoz (Jason Flemyng)
- Lady Deathstrike by Jade Lye (Kelly Hu)
- Psylocke by Ayesha Hussain (Olivia Munn)
- Toad by Daniel Medina Ramos (Ray Park)
- Bullseye by Curtis Small (Colin Farrell)
- Castillo by Chloe Kibble (Dania Ramirez)
- Quinn by Nilly Cetin (Ken Lueng)
- The Russian by Billy Clements (Kevin Nash)
Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now.
Turns out, it was New York Comic Con all along – as the place to meet Wanda and Vision themselves, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany! Limited Thursday NYCC 2024 tickets are still on sale, and then make sure to scoop your Photo Op with them for bragging rights on the ‘gram.
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