Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine almost appeared in Deadpool, if star/producer Ryan Reynolds had his way - and classic supervillain Taskmaster was also mooted to appear.
Speaking exclusively to Empire for the Deadpool Spoiler Special Podcast, Reynolds spoke of the “endless” debates with executives at the studio, 20th Century Fox, over which supporting X-Men they were allowed to include.
"Taskmaster was in the script originally. Too expensive,” Reynolds said. “We had versions where Hugh Jackman was in there, but it just becomes a big mess for the studio - schedules, money, everything.”
Reynolds continued: “We went through such hell developing the script, and developing which X-Men we could keep, and which we couldn’t. It turned into such a nightmare. The studio would just say: ‘too expensive, too expensive’ to everybody."
Ultimately, the supporting mutants in the finished movie are the brilliantly-named Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Colossus, played by Brianna Hildebrand and Stefan Kapičić, respectively. The film’s inability to afford more mutants is made light of in a typically self-aware joke in the film.
Reynolds also revealed that he and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are “well into a script” for the sequel, which was recently revealed to be in development, noting that “there’s 25 years of comics to draw from.” The mutant Cable has been heavily teased to appear in the sequel, with a less-than-subtle nod in Deadpool’s post-credits sting.
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