The Biggest And Best Cameos In Deadpool & Wolverine, Ranked

This article contains major spoilers for “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

It comes as no surprise that “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the third film in the Merc with a Mouth’s film franchise would be chock full of cameos on top of the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, especially since this feels like a capstone on top of the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel movies. As Deadpool enters the MCU, there are a variety of characters whose movie franchises were cut short and should have continued, and they get a chance to shine once more with some cheeky humor thrown in for good measure. There’s even one version of a character who was never actually brought to the big screen until now.

Basically, “Deadpool & Wolverine” pulled out all the stops and offered a smorgasbord of Marvel characters and big name cameos, even though Taylor Swift isn’t one of them. But there’s at least a couple cameos that you never would have expected, and hopefully they weren’t ruined ahead of time by all the unofficial leaks. 

Now that the movie is out there, /Film has ranked the biggest and best Marvel cameos of the film for you, even the ones you may have forgotten about or even just missed because they were flying by a mile a minute.

The 20th Century Fox X-Men cinematic universe began in 2000 with “X-Men”, directed by Bryan Singer. It was Hugh Jackman’s first outing as Wolverine, and it als brought us Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, including the infamous Toad (played then by Ray Park). Seeing him relegated to The Void from Marvel’s “Loki” TV series, alongside other X-Men villains from the franchise, like the teleporting Azazel, a brand new Juggernaut (in the Vinnie Jones costume form “X-Men: The Last Stand”), Lady Deathstrike, Psylocke, and Callisto, among many others, was nothing short of a treat. The film could have very easily used generic henchmen (of which there are many), but bringing back these fan favorites, even if the actors were different, was a delight.

Throughout the film, the fabled Deadpool Corps. is invoked as a group you just don’t want to mess with. Assembled of Deadpool variants across the mutliverse, you can see just how diverse this strange group is as soon as they emerge from a sparkly portal. Led by Lady Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds’ real-life partner Blake Lively, they are ready to kill anything in their way. But she’s not the only cameo tucked into the massive pack of Mercs with Mouths. 

Nathan Fillion is there as Headpool, who is just… bizarre to see in photorealistic form. Even Matthew McConaughey snuck into the film as a Cowboy Deadpool. There’s even a Deadpool decked out in Wrexham AFC gear, referencing the soccer (football) team that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney own across the pond. There may be more discovered in the pack over the coming weeks, but trying to keep track of so many Deadpools was nothing short of a dizzying experience and maybe a little too indulgent.

Reprising the role of Sabretooth for the first time since 2000’s “X-Men”, Tyler Mane came back to have a showdown with Wolverine and Deadpool in the wastelands where variants are sent. Mane was notably absent from future X-Men related films, and Liev Schrieber took over the role in the ill-fated and infamously leaked “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which was also the first appearance of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. When asked why Mane didn’t appear in that film, he told The Hollywood Reporter that it was simply the decision of the producers, he’d have been happy to come back. In “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Sabertooth looks imposing and creates a tie back to the very beginning of this shared universe created initially by 20th Century Fox, but he ultimately gets his head swiftly cut off by Wolverine.

Though Pyro first appeared as a character in the 2000 “X-Men” film, Aaron Stanford didn’t step into the role until 2003’s “X2: X-Men United.” As a mutant, Pyro’s powers include the ability to manipulate flames, which make him a perfect villain to match up against another Fox superhero who can create flames in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (more on that later).

Stanford came back once more for “X-Men: The Last Stand”, but then vanished from the X-Men universe. However, he appears again in “Deadpool & Wolverine” with that same smugness that made him such a great heavy in the previous films, and it builds on his jealousy and rivalry with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men, even though this particular variant of Wolverine had no tie or connection to this Pyro whatsoever. Stanford adds an edge of angry depth to this character that could have very easily just been a cookie cutter X-Men villain — like those listed coming up at the top of our list.

Blockbuster director of the upcoming “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” movie, Jon Favreau came back again to the Marvel universe to play Happy Hogan from the MCU proper. Happy Hogan started as Favreau’s own supporting role in 2008’s “Iron Man”, which also had him directing. Hogan was Tony Stark’s chauffeur, and as he hilariously defends himselt to Deadpool in an early scene, he worked his way up to head of security and beyond.

It’s interesting that Favreau made a cameo as Hogan, rather than as Foggy Nelson, which was the character he portrayed in a 20th Century Fox Marvel movie “Daredevil” from 2003, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner as Daredevil and Elektra. The scene where Happy Hogan appears is vital to Deadpool’s arc as a character, as it’s Happy that dashes Wade’s dreams of becoming an Avenger. But he also tells Wade to keep doing his thing, as the Avengers would be keeping an eye on him. His cameo is fairly brief but very funny, and it adds a much needed dose of pathos to the Deadpool we see in the film and helps propel our antihero on his journey to being a full-blown hero.

Chris Hemsworth is back in a tiny cameo that brought the house down (at least in my early screening of the movie). When Deadpool is brought to the Time Variance Authority (an organization that originated in the “Loki” television series), he’s shown a number of possible futures, including one where Thor is weeping over an injured Deadpool. Having Thor, the God of Thunder, cradling the partially unmasked head of a fallen Wade Wilson, is a perfectly rousing image and one of the reasons why these interconnected comic book movies work so well. 

In the pages of comic books, it’s easy to draw in a cameo and have Captain America come and hang out with Spider-Man, or Thor hang out with Deadpool and the Punisher. As long as there’s a story reason for it, the sky is the limit. In a multi-billion dollar franchise and actors and salaries to deal with, these cameos get harder to do. Seeing one so big but in such a quick throwaway shot shows the devotion of the filmmakers to make this feel like an absurdist Deadpool comic.  It’s also one of the things that made “She-Hulk” so great, the ability to make it feel like an issue of the comic. Plus, it fuels a little ongoing gag for “Deadpool & Wolverine” too.

On a list of things I was not expecting to see in “Deadpool & Wolverine” was Henry Cavill — the actor who defined Superman for almost a decade on the big screen. The only thing I expected less was for him to show up as Wolverine. 

As Deadpool searches the multiverse for a Wolverine that can help save his timeline from crumbling, he runs into a number of different iterations of the character, from the sleek super-spy in a white tuxedo to the four-foot-tall comics accurate short version of the character. At one point, in all of his mutliverse hopping, Deadpool arrives in a garage or warehouse of some sort to see an impressively muscular Wolverine with his back turned to him, working on a motorcycle. That’s not out of the ordinary for Wolverine. But when Deadpool — and the audience – get a look at the face of this Wolverine, jaws hit the floor. 

Henry Cavill, decked out in a white undershirt and chomping on a cigar. He even gets to pop the claws and threaten Deadpool, even as Wade promises that Marvel will treat him better than DC ever did (in so many words). And, let’s be honest, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is better than all of the movies Cavill made appearances in as the Man of Steel — or at the least more entertaining. It would be great to see Cavill in another Marvel project as a character who’s not just thrown away in a joke of a cameo, albeit a great one.

Elektra Natchios, created by Frank Miller during his landmark run of “Daredevil,” made her film debut in 2003’s “Daredevil,” produced by 20th Century Fox. That movie wasn’t exactly a fan-favorite, but it did well enough to earn a spin-off with 2005’s “Elektra.” Jennifer Garner played the titular character, but that was the end of the road of that particular branch of the Marvel timeline. Ben Affleck—who was actually a terrific Daredevil — traded his devil’s horns for bat ears and became Batman for Zack Snyder and never looked back at the Man Without Fear.

It was truly a shock when Elektra’s trademark sais appeared on the screen, and Jennifer Garner strolled into the secret base of the superhero resistance in the netherworld of The Void they’d been banished to. “Deadpool & Wolverine” offers Garner a chance to close the book on a character she originated more than 20 years ago on the big screen, and it also gives her a funny moment referencing her real life marriage (and divorce) with Ben Affleck.

In 2015, at San Diego Comic-Con, Channing Tatum was brought out on the stage at Hall H, and it was announced that he would be starring as everyone’s favorite Cajun thief, Gambit, in a brand new “X-Men: Origins” film, taking over from Taylor Kitsch, who played the part in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” People were excited, and the Hall H crowd went absolutely wild for the news, which was solidified in the trades even. Unfortunately, the film got trapped in development hell and never got made. Directors ranging from Edgar Wright to Gore Verbinski circled the project, but Lauren Shuler Donner and the team at Fox just couldn’t make it happen. It became one of those failures that never even got to see the light of day, despite the confidence and excitement behind it.

In “Wolverine & Deadpool,” Tatum’s Gambit is teamed up with the other superhero survivors of The Void, and it’s amazing how accurate they were with Gambit’s original but ridiculous “X-Men: The Animated Series” costume, replete with ridiculous head-covering, metal turtleneck and purple shirt, all topped off with a brown trench coat. The absurdity of his appearance, including that silly Cajun accent that Wade can’t help but make fun of, didn’t take away from the power of his appearance. For the first time ever, it made me wonder if that unproduced Gambit movie could have actually been good.

This is just one more way the team behind “Deadpool & Wolverine” is tapped into its core audience. As soon as Channing Tatum appeared in the movie, there was a collective gasp in the theatre, and there was a definite feeling permeating the air that said, “They really pulled in a cameo from a movie that didn’t even get made.” It was done infinitely better than Nicolas Cage’s cameo as Superman in “The Flash,” another self-referential, multiversal cameo by an actor famously attached to a role in a movie that never got made. Nerds remember!

Much like the unproduced Gambit movie, another film that seems to be circling the “may never get produced” pile is the introduction of the daywalker Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There have been hints and stories about Mahershala Ali being tied to the role and his management team disappointed with the extremely long development time for the movie. It’s been in the works, with Ali attached, since 2019 — that’s five full years. On the other hand, Wesley Snipes starred in three popular movies as the vampire hunting character, released in 1998, 2002, and 2004.

Wesley Snipes has slowed down his acting considerably in recent years, and this was not the sort of cameo I expected to see in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Snipes starred in his third film, “Blade: Trinity,” alongside Ryan Reynolds and was famously unhappy with it. In fact, he was so unhappy with the script, he refused to film parts of it. He believed that it was really more of a vehicle to set up spin-offs for the characters played by Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel.

To see him on-screen playing nice as Blade in someone else’s movie — a Ryan Reynolds movie no less — is actually pretty amazing. Doubly so when you know the fraught history he had with the end of the character. Now, he has a much higher note to go out on, and the movie even pokes some fun at the history between Reynolds and Snipes.

Better still is that Snipes got to put in some digs at Marvel’s expense about not being able to get another “Blade” film off the ground, hearkening back to the troubled development of Ali’s iteration of the character. He seemed to be having fun, and it read on screen loud and clear.

Dafne Keen was one of the standout parts of James Mangold’s 2017 “Logan.” As a swan-song for Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine, she was a perfect supporting player as X-23. Created in a lab, she has all of Wolverine’s powers and strengths. “Logan” was meant to spark a new franchise of X-23 films, but that never really materialized. Seeing her get to play her character as an adult, another one of the infamous resistance heroes fighting against Cassandra Nova, becomes a treat for those who hold “Logan” in such high esteem.

Keen is having a great year, too, as she just came off the heels of playing Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon in “Star Wars: The Acolyte.” She brings a gravitas to “Deadpool & Wolverine” that I wasn’t expecting and lights up the screen with every shot she’s in, and she even throws on those signature sunglasses. It’s really a shame we didn’t get more movies with Keen as X-23, but hopefully this can open a door to the multiverse. And if it doesn’t, then we have this great coda to her role.

In my mind, there is no question that this particular cameo will go down as the best one from “Deadpool & Wolverine.” When Chris Evans first showed up in the film, even Deadpool is confused and shocked when it’s revealed that Evans is not playing Captain America, but Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, from the first two movies Fox produced in the “Fantastic Four” franchise. 

Those films and his role in the Marvel universe was largely forgotten when Evans stepped behind Captain America’s shield and became a household name across three Captain America films and “The Avengers” movies as well. Evans proves his range in the superhero genre, not to mention reminding us that he wasn’t the problem with those ridiculous movies about the Fantastic Four. (He’s not the only cameo from those movies to make it into “Deadpool & Wolverine”. The hovering Fantasticar makes an appearance, too.)

Through the film, the ignominious death of Johnny Storm haunts Deadpool (as much as anything can), especially since Wolverine tries to blame it on Wade, which is partially true. Deadpool attributes a nasty, profane description of the villain Cassandra Nova to Johnny Storm, which gets his skin snapped off, leaving his body in a messy puddle and surely dead.

It was utterly shocking to hear Chris Evans, in his most gravitas filled voice, shout “Flame On!” one more time and then go up against Pyro, of all people, here merely snuffs out Johnny’s flame. Sure, he’ll be best known as Captain America, probably as long as he lives, but those of us who suffered through the sub-par comic book movie days of the early 2000s will forever associate him with the Human Torch. Getting to confuse the two in the multiverse is a great move on the part of the screenwriters, subverting expectations in the best ways. But that’s not all.

The post-credits scene lets Chris Evans do one of the best rapid-fire vulgarity routines ever committed to film, and it kinda lets Deadpool off the hook for getting him killed. Evans seemed truly committed to making his time in “Deadpool & Wolverine” memorable and he managed to go full supernova.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is playing in theaters around the world now.