We, like many others, were steeped in rumours and reports that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool would be making his MCU appearance in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (here) but then the movie came out and, as great as it was, alas, Deadpool did not appear.

And, while the cameos we got WERE great, albeit brief and shocking, I kinda thought that Deadpool more than most would have worked and felt a little silly for buying into the whole rumour mill.

But, it seems that his potential appearance wasn’t as silly as we felt it was after seeing the movie.

In a new interview about the movie, writer Michael Waldon was asked about Deadpool’s appearance – or lack of – in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and confirmed it was discussed and did almost happen: “Yeah, we talked about it,” Waldron said.

“I think we talked about everything in this movie. So, [it] would’ve been crazy to not raise that, but it ultimately didn’t feel like…It just didn’t feel like the right place. But yeah, of course we talked about it.”

Continues after trailer:

Reynolds recently revealed that Shawn Levy will be directing Deadpool 3, which will see the character officially join the MCU (here), so many people felt confident that Multiverse of Madness would be the movie that saw him pulled into the MCU, but, having seen the movie, it’s possible the Deadpool we’ve seen before is a variant and the MCU will have its own version of Deadpool… although, given hot Deadpool 2 ended, I can see it being the same Deadpool that comes into the MCU and hopefully brings Zazie Beetz’s Domino, Josh Brolin’s Cable and everyone else with him.

That all said, Reynolds had denied being in Multiverse of Madness quite a while ago (despite teasing us (here)) but everyone assumed he was being funny: “I’m really not in the movie… I’m promising, I’m not in the movie,” he said. Guess he was being honest after all.

Another big rumour that has been around for quite some time (here) was that Tom Cruise would be seen in the movie as Ultimate Iron Man, part of the Illuminati – this was especially popular after we saw the Ultrons in the trailer for Multiverse of Madness as people believed they had to have been created by Iron Man of Earth-838 – but it seems that, unlikely Deadpool, this was never even discussed: “Yeah, that was totally made up. I mean, there’s no cut footage of Tom Cruise.” Waldron said.

“But I love Tom Cruise, and I said to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] at one point, I was like, ‘Could we get Tom Cruise’s Iron Man?’ I remember reading about that in Ain’t It Cool News back in the day, that Tom Cruise was going to be Iron Man. As it was being talked about online, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool!'”

Will John Krasinski appear as Reed Richards in future MCU Movies? Multiverse of Madness writer discusses…

It seems there was no discussion with Cruise and he’s just too busy to even be considered.

Ok, so SPOILERS, what about the shocking deaths of the Illuminati in the movie, particularly John Krasinski’s Reed Richards and Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier? How did those come about because, for a Marvel movie, they were pretty brutal?

“That was there in my first draft of the script,” Waldon says.

“That was the madness of the multiverse to me, really. You introduced this superhero team that makes the audience feel like they’re finally safe, and then the Scarlet Witch eviscerates them. It was a great way to knock the audience off their feet. And then hopefully, you spend the rest of the movie terrified of Wanda and what she’s capable of.”

I hadn’t thought of it this way, the madness in the title is this scene, that’s the craziness we could never have predicted; it was only when the new heroes walked up to Scarlet Witch in that movie, just before the carnage began, that it occurred to me that these are not ‘our’ heroes and there’s no real promise of safety – these guys’ deaths mean nothing to the MCU we know and love. That caught be off guard and I loved that.

Enter a new dimension of Strange. Watch the official trailer for Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Only in theaters May 6.

In Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stühlbarg, and Rachel McAdams.

The film is directed by Sam Raimi, and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Eric Hauserman Carroll and Jamie Christopher serve as executive producers. The screenplay was written by Michael Waldron.

Source: Deadpool