A scrapped Deadpool & Wolverine scene almost had Deadpool face all the MCU’s Avengers. Deadpool & Wolverine is crammed with cameos, dishing out moments of fan service from start to finish as Marvel actors from erstwhile franchises made appearances throughout. Aside from stock footage, which included Thor crying over Deadpool, the Avengers were ultimately not among them – but that wasn’t always going to be the case.
In an interview with IndieWire, Deadpool & Wolverine writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick divulged that the scene showing Deadpool being rejected for the Avengers was originally conceived to have him “dressing down” each of the Avengers, who would have all been present. Given the scene, which evolved into a more toned-down interview with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, takes place in the months preceding Avengers: Infinity War, this Avengers lineup would also seemingly have included Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Ultimately, however, it was scrapped entirely. The full quote can be read below:
Wernick: We haven’t told anybody this, but there was a version of that scene very, very early on that wasn’t written, but was conceived, that had all the Avengers in the room. And Wade was rejected and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do.
Reese: That’s a little bit of a scoop, but he was going to get mad and basically attack each one of them in a vicious kind of way.
Why Deadpool & Wolverine’s Avengers Fight Scene Didn’t Happen
Getting Every Avenger Together Would Have Been Expensive
The simplest explanation for why the entire Avengers team did not appear in Deadpool & Wolverine appears to be due to scheduling. Largely thanks to the MCU itself, wrangling each of the A-List actors that comprised the Avengers in 2018 would have been quite the undertaking, even if the scene took only a few moments to wrap up. Upon it being pointed out that the scene would have been expensive, Reese continued:
“And an impossible schedule! Can you imagine trying to coordinate that? I mean, we lucked out on “Deadpool 2.” We had a cameo with all the X-Men, but they happened to be shooting a movie at the time together. It’s really easy to grab them. Simon Kinberg grabbed them on his set and shot that side of it, but we didn’t have that here and, goodness knows, it would’ve been impossible. That’s sort of like the “We Are the World” documentary where they tried to get Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel and Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson all together at once. Impossible.”
Reese and Werner also stated that the scene was at the very least intended to involve Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. They clarified that upon asking RDJ to return as Stark in the early scenes, they were unaware (along with most of the world) that his Doctor Doom reveal at SDCC 2024 was going to occur just days after Deadpool & Wolverine was released. Having him portray Tony Stark so closely to this would have complicated things.
The same could be said for Chris Evans, who would have portrayed two characters in the same movie had the initial “fight scene” occurred with him as Steve Rogers. At the very least, the fake-out of seeing Evans return in the guise of Johnny Storm instead of Steve Rogers would not have landed as well as it ultimately did. Whatever the case, while the Avengers and Deadpool interaction was never to be in Deadpool & Wolverine, perhaps there is a chance to make good on the concept down the line in Avengers: Secret Wars.
