There were a ton of Deadpool & Wolverine cameos that appeared in the recent hit film, but prior to the news of Doctor Doom’s casting, Ryan Reynolds had his eyes set on the holy grail of cameos.
While in development of Deadpool & Wolverine, the film’s co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick revealed that they hoped to get Robert Downey Jr. to appear in the film alongside Jon Favreau.
“We had wanted him to do a cameo. We had written that scene [to start] with Happy and Downey,” Wernick said in a conversation to Indiewire. “Ryan Reynolds read 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.”
Wernick went on to say that they had no idea about the Doctor Doom casting behind the scenes and that initially, they thought Downey Jr. would say yes immediately.
“We said, ‘Oh, Downey doesn’t say ‘no’ to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds,’” said Wernick. “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.”
Downey Jr. famously played Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU for over a decade, with the character dying in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. In July 2024, it was announced that Downey Jr. would return to Marvel Studios; however, he’ll now be playing the villainous Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
