Major spoilers ahead for Deadpool 2….If you haven’t seen the film yet don’t read below!!!
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LAST CHANCE!!!
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Well…if you are still reading you’ve either seen the movie or simply can’t help yourself.
The Ryan Reynolds lead comedy is one of the most cameo packed films of all time, and like most good cameos, most will go unseen to the naked eye. Luckily not only this guy saw the film a couple of times during opening weekend, but had some help from some other diehards Deadpool fans who helped out.
In no particular order:
1) Matt Damon & Alan Tudyk
The two actors are indeed the two rednecks that Cable first encounters when he travels to present day. The Firefly and Rogue One star is a pretty easy one to recognize.
However, it’s Damon who goes full prosthetic, virtually unrecognizable in his redneck get up. Even in the credits the part is credited to Dickie Greenleaf, a character from Damon’s early hit The Talented Mr. Ripley. While Damon may never don a superhero part (besides Jason Bourne), he may find a second career doing cameos in superhero flicks. He most recently cameoed as the Asgardian actor playing Loki in Thor: Ragnarok.
2) The X-Men
One of the longstanding jokes throughout the first Deadpool was Wade Wilson talking about how every time he visited Xavier’s School for the Gifted he only ever saw Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. In Deadpool 2, when he is back at the mansion, he repeats same joke, while in the other room we see James McAvoy’s Professor X, Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, Nicholas Hoult’s Beast and Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops, among others, quietly closing the door on Deadpool.
While not sure we are ever going to see a full team-up of Deadpool with the full X-Men team, this is at least a larger acknowledgement that the two groups, X-Men and X-Force, can co-exist and are in the same universe. When the first Deadpool was made these actors would not have been caught dead in the film; now it almost feels as if the studio needs them to connect more to Deadpool than ever before. A new X-Men film is on the way with longtime X-Men producer/writer Simon Kinberg helming, and he directed this little cameo with his cast.
3) Brad Pitt
The Vanisher, one of the X-Force, is played by Brad Pitt. While invisible mutant is never seen on screen up until the moment he is electrocuted, that final shot gives us a glimpse of Pitt, who did it for a cup of coffee.
4) The Rest of the X-Force
While heavily promoted as part of the film, X-Force really only is Deadpool and Domino, and for good reason. However, the rest of the X-Force indeed makes a small appearance. In addition to Brad Pitt, we also have cameos from Terry Crews and Bill Skarsgard. Crews portrays Bedlam and Skarsgard (Pennywise himself) portrays Zeitgeist. All the recruited X-Force members perish quite early after their introduction, besides of course Deadpool and Domino, leaving Cable, Negasonic, and Colossus as ideal members of X-Force when the film ends.
5) Stan Lee
Unable to film his normal cameo in a Marvel movie, his portrait is painted on the side of a building, seen when Deadpool and the X-Force are chasing Russell Collins/Firefist.
6) Hugh Jackman
Only archival footage is used of Jackman, but it was apparently used with his permission. In what can be argued is the greatest (no exaggeration) Marvel post-credits scene ever, we see Wade Wilson correct the timeline from X – Men Origins: Wolverine. This solves the problematic Deadpool appearance in that film, but also keeps the timeline correct so Wolverine can still die in Logan. Many were hoping for a full Wolverine/Deadpool crossover; sadly that will probably be as close as we will get.
7) Christopher Plummer…?
This one was pointed out to me, I didn’t even catch it. Apparently on a TV screen early on in the film, at the bottom there is a ticker with it saying “Christopher Plummer turns down role in Deadpool 2.” Many have pointed out this is reference to TJ Miller, who before the film was released was accused of inappropriate behavior. While Miller indeed made the final cut, it is a reference to Plummer replacing Kevin Spacey in All the Money In the World. Miller has already been confirmed to not be included in the next film.
Overall Deadpool 2 has brought in an estimated gross of $125 million domestically, down slightly from the first, which had $132 million domestically. Oversees though it highly outperformed its predecessor pulling in an additional $176 million. Deadpool 2 also broke a number of records including best Thursday previews for an R-rated film, best opening day for an R-rated film, and Fox International’s biggest opening of all time.
This is a huge win for Fox, whose X-Men brand suffered with the critical bashing of X-Men Apocalypse and the almost year delay of their horror film, New Mutants. The next film is the aforementioned Dark Phoenix. Beyond that there are tons of films in development, including the long gestating Gambit starring Channing Tatum and X-Force. However, with the Disney/Fox merger still potentially happening by 2019, nothing is certain as we could see the X – Men return to Marvel Studios and the Mouse House.
James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) congratulated Deadpool on a successful opening weekend…..
