SPOILER ALERT: This post contains plot details for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Robert Downey Jr. was close to reprising his Iron Man role in Deadpool & Wolverine.
In a new interview, co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick reveal that Downey was written into one of the scenes and even read for it. However, Downey turned down the part as he was already in talks to return to the MCU as Doctor Doom.
“We had wanted him to do a cameo. We had written that scene [to start] with Happy and Downey,” Wernick told IndieWire in a recent interview.
Downey was to reprise his role of Tony Stark in a scene at the beginning of the film where Reynolds’ Deadpool uses a time machine to jump into the Sacred Timeline to pitch the idea of joining the Avengers. The scene also featured the Merc with a Mouth meeting with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, which ended up making the final cut of the film.
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“Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey. But he also wanted Favreau, because they’re a great combo, and they were all in the scene together,” Reese said.
Wernick noted, “Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about Doctor Doom. And there’s no way he was going to do both. 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.”
The writers said that the original scene planned with Downey, Favreau and Reynolds “was actually pretty close to the scene” that audiences saw in the theatre.
“It worked out great. I mean, look, we would’ve loved to have Downey,” Reese added. “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.”
Wernick also revealed an early version of that scene “that had all the Avengers in the room,” adding, “Wade was rejected, and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do.”