Robert Downey Jr. turned down ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ cameo

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If you’ve seen it, you already know that Deadpool & Wolverine was stacked with cameos.

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In addition to the titular leads, the latest Marvel movie, which is currently shattering box office records, featured surprise appearances from Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Blade/Eric Brooks (Wesley Snipes), Gambit (Channing Tatum), Human Torch/Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), and X-23 (Dafne Keen), among others. But Deadpool & Wolverine almost landed the biggest superhero of them all: Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.

According to the film’s co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Downey was invited to return as Tony Stark during a scene in which Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool pitches his services to the Avengers when he shows up for a job interview with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan. 

“Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey,” Reese revealed in an interview with IndieWire. “But he also wanted Favreau, because they’re a great combo, and they were all in the scene together.”

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Little did everyone know, Downey was already in deep discussions with Marvel to return to the MCU as the villainous Doctor Doom, with his appearance in the next two Avengers films announced at San Diego Comic-Con last month.

“There’s no way he was going to do both,” Wernick added. “And then we said, ‘Oh, Downey doesn’t say no to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds.’ And Ryan gave him the hard press. We wrote scenes, and Downey read the scenes, but what we didn’t know behind the scenes was this Doctor Doom thing.”

After Iron Man was killed off at the end of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios revealed that Downey will return to the MCU to play the notorious villains in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which are expected to hit theatres in May 2026 and May 2027, respectively.

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“New mask, same task,” Downey said on his return. “What can I tell you? I like playing complicated characters.”

With his casting as Doom still very much a secret, Downey passed on the chance to come back as Iron Man for a scene in Deadpool & Wolverine. Reese said the Oscar winner “was the only ‘no’ we’ve ever gotten, I think, in terms of people just saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do it.’”

The scene still made the final cut of the movie, but only featured Deadpool and Favreau’s Happy Hogan.

“I mean, look, we would’ve loved to have Downey,” Reese said. “But, at the same time, I think Marvel had this ace in their hole, which is he’s about to come back in this different character. So, to have him be Tony Stark? Knowing that Doctor Doom was coming on the heels of that? It just didn’t make sense.”

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Another scene that didn’t make the cut would have featured Deadpool insulting the rest of the Avengers after the team told him they weren’t interested in his services.

“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,” Wernick said. “And Wade was rejected and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do.”

But in a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wernick said they still have a version of the script that features Downey trading lines with Reynolds.

“There is a script. We have the Downey draft,” Wernick said.

Two Avengers veterans did return, with Chris Hemsworth appearing as Thor and Evans back as Human Torch, who he played in the original Fantastic Four movies.

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After Reynolds joked about the “why was Thor crying” moment in the film, Hemsworth said: “I can keep secrets too” — hinting that the two have a future together on the big screen.

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Meanwhile, Evans called his return a “dream come true” in an Instagram post the week after the film hit theatres.

“Thank you to Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Shawn Levy for letting me be a part of such an incredible movie!” Evans wrote alongside a photo from the set. “They’re three of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Special thank you to Ryan for making it all happen. Playing Johnny again was a dream come true and he’ll always have a special place in my heart.”

Elsewhere, after many failed attempts to get his Gambit movie off the ground, Tatum said he hopes he gets a chance to return as the popular X-Men mutant.

“I thought I had lost Gambit forever,” Tatum wrote in an Instagram post, but Reynolds “fought for me and Gambit.”

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“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,” the Magic Mike star continued. “All things happen for a reason. I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theatre. LFG!!”

After his unexpected MCU appearance as Blade, Snipes has broken two Guinness World Records: Longest Career as a Live-Action Marvel Character and Longest Gap Between Character Appearances in Marvel Films.

“I thought it didn’t make sense to me, but (when) you get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue after 20 years, you go, ‘Okay, I got to take this call. Let’s see what this is about,’” Snipes told Entertainment Weekly of his return. “He told me the idea… They said ‘yes’ and ‘it’s a go.’ ‘If you’re in, we’re in.’ Here we are.”

Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theatres.

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