Ryan Reynolds confirmed in a recent interview with Collider that he got in touch with Nicolas Cage and asked him to reprise his role of Ghost Rider in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The record-breaking Marvel blockbuster features a handful of actors reprising their comic book characters of yesteryear, from Jennifer Garner’s Elektra to Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm and Wesley Snipes’ Blade. Reynolds wanted Cage to join the film’s epic roster of cameos.
Asked if Cage was pursued to reprise Ghost Rider, Reynolds answered: “Yes.” The actor then added: “Came to a conversation for sure. Yeah, but no.”
Cage played Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in two comic book movies: “Ghost Rider” (2007) and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” (2011). The movies were released by Sony, whereas “Deadpool & Wolverine” featured cameos from actors who starred in Marvel movies that were developed and distributed by Fox, which is now owned by Disney.
While Cage was on the list of actors wanted for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” one actor who was not was Patrick Stewart. Many fans expected Stewart to pop up against as Charles Xavier since he starred opposite Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in many “X-Men” movies, dating back to the 2000 original, and recently reprised the character for a cameo in Marvel’s 2022 tentpole “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
“Never even discussed,” director Shawn Levy said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast about Stewart’s return. “And it was studied. Studied by Emma Corrin big time because the Cassandra sibling-hood to Professor X is really interesting to us. But no, never discussed. Never, never considered.”
The actors who did return for “Deadpool & Wolverine” have expressed gratitude to Reynolds and Levy in the days following the movie’s record-breaking opening weekend. Evans wrote on social media that playing Johnny Storm again “was a dream come true and he’ll always have a special place in my heart.” The actor hadn’t played the “Fantastic Four” superhero since 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
Channing Tatum popped up in “Deadpool & Wolverine” as Gambit, a character he never got to play in a movie despite trying to get a Gambit movie off the ground at Fox for several years. Tatum thanked Reynolds in his own social media post for finally giving him the chance to debut as the comic book character.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever,” Tatum wrote, noting that Reynolds “fought for me and Gambit and “I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.”
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters nationwide from Disney.
