Deadpool and Wolverine teased a whole lot of potential cameos from all over the eras of the Marvel universe, but most were kept under wraps until release this weekend.
There is one that I think very, very few people saw coming, and it’s arguably the best of the bunch. But obviously to talk about it, we’re going to get into heavy spoiler territory. Though you should have clicked on an article about cameos in the first place.
I’m talk about the appearance of Chris Evans, arguably the second biggest MCU star behind perhaps only Robert Downey Jr, though part of the joke is that he does not show up in the void as Captain America, but instead, in a surprise turn, Johnny Storm, who Evans played in 2005/2007’s Fantastic Four movies, right before the MCU era began. When he appears, his surprise “Flame on!” drew the most laughs by far in the theater I was in. I suspect that was also the case elsewhere.
EW has a new interview with Chris Evans talking about how this happened and how he was dragged back into the MCU after hanging up his shield. And it’s all thanks to the charms of Ryan Reynolds.
“Ryan’s a buddy,” Evans said. “He just shot me a text saying, ‘Listen, might be a long shot, but would you have any interest in reprising something from 20 years ago?’ I said, ‘Oh my God! Of course.'”
“Honestly, Ryan might be the only guy that I would’ve done it for because he’s just got the Midas touch,” he said. “His self-awareness makes him almost invincible. He makes the joke before the audience gets a chance to make the joke, so if you’re going to revisit a character and you have to find a way to make it work, Ryan’s humor makes just about everything work, so you feel an automatic sense of safety.”
It’s not even just a brief flicker of a cameo, it’s several scenes including a fight with Pyro, a ride in a Mad Max convoy as a prisoner and a showdown with Cassandra Nova where he uh, loses his skin. Literally. All of it. You saw it, you know.
But Evans said it was an easy shoot, flying in for a couple days, in and out. He said costuming was easier too because the outfit from the void didn’t need to be “pristine” the way Marvel fussed over with the original. Evans says he has nothing but fond memories of working on the original two Fantastic Four movies, where at 23, he said were a big cornerstone for his career. I remember when he was cast as Cap and there was even some fan pushback he would be playing Rogers after playing Human Torch just a few years earlier. Well, the rest is history.
But no, Evans does not think about bringing Captain America back, he says, and has always been emphatic that Sam Wilson has the mantle now, as he does in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World. So don’t expect any more cameos there.
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