17 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets About "Deadpool & Wolverine" That'll Make You Watch The Movie Differently

🚨Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead!🚨

1. While developing a concept for the third Deadpool movie, Ryan Reynolds worked with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to "elevate" the franchise. They threw around a bunch of ideas but none of them worked. It wasn't until Hugh Jackman called Ryan and said he wanted to come back to play Wolverine.

2. However, Kevin initially told Hugh not to come back as Wolverine. “I said, ‘Let me give you a piece of advice, Hugh. Don’t come back,’” he said. “‘You had the greatest ending in history with Logan. That’s not something we should undo.’” Wolverine died at the end of Logan, so he wanted to stay faithful to that story. Kevin changed his mind once the MCU began creating stories dealing with the multiverse.

Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Years and years go by, we're working on this movie, and we have the multiverse. And we have the Time Variance Authority. And we have ways to maintain the integrity of what has come before and tell new stories with the same characters," he said in a later interview. 

3. Ryan's entire family was involved in making the film, too. His wife, Blake Lively, played Lady Deadpool. Their daughters James, Inez, and Betty are credited as "Screaming Mutant," "Kidpool," and "Hugh Jackman Wrangler," respectively. And their son Olin played "Babypool."

4. Hugh underwent an intense workout regimen to get in shape to play Wolverine again. He started workouts at 4 a.m. each day, consisting of a mixture of cardio and strength training. Then, on his recovery days, he'd do a cold plunge. To maintain muscle mass and bulk up, he ate protein-rich meals and steamed fish and vegetables four times a day for six months.

5. One of the most viral moments from the movie happens in the opening scene as Deadpool fights TVA agents while doing NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" dance without missing a beat. The dance was actually performed by a double named Nick Pauley. He revealed that he learned the entire dance in 30 minutes and sent in his audition tape.

6. Henry Cavill has one of the major cameos as a Wolverine variant. The idea for Henry's casting was actually from Ryan himself. Director Shawn Levy explained, "That idea was hatched by Ryan, named by Ryan in that same instance, and it was not long after the Superman-DC shuffling of the deck, and it was just on our minds, and then it was the idea, the name, a text and an answer, all in 15 minutes."

7. The movie has so many other huge cameos as well, like Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, Wesley Snipes, and Jennifer Garner. Shawn explained that these special appearances all came to be because he and Ryan reached out to the actors themselves. "With pretty much no exceptions, every surprise casting in this movie came down to Ryan or I reaching out to the actor before lawyers and before agents [were involved]," he explained. "It literally was us asking and invariably people saying 'yes.'"

8. One of the biggest rumors on the internet was that Taylor Swift would be making a cameo in the movie. But Shawn has confirmed that was never true. "That was one of the loudest rumors that came out of nowhere. It was never true," he said. "Thank you, internet, for building such a smokescreen of rumors and half-truths so that no one ever knew what was going to happen."

9. It was Ryan's idea to get Wesley Snipes to come back and play Blade because he felt Blade deserved a rightful "moment" and wanted to honor the character's legacy. "Wesley’s return as Blade was a very early idea of Ryan’s," Shawn explained. "We wanted to explore themes of legacy, characters, and their endings. Ryan had said, 'Blade never really got that moment, and I think people don’t even realize how much they miss Wesley Snipes as Blade until they see him. Let’s give them that feeling.' So, Ryan reached out to Wesley. Wesley has not played Blade in a long time. He and Ryan have not been in close touch in a very long time. But we made clear to Wesley that this was not going for a joke. This was out of reverence for his legacy as this iconic character."

10. Outside of acting, Ryan is a co-owner of Wrexham AFC alongside Rob McElhenney. The team's striker, Paul Mullen, makes a cameo as Welshpool, while Rob makes a cameo as a TVA soldier.

11. Way before Deadpool & Wolverine, Channing Tatum had been trying to get a Gambit solo movie made. In 2014, 20th Century Fox greenlit the film, but it ended up in limbo for years. Several directors and writers signed on and quit the project, none being able to agree with the tone of the film and the portrayal of the character. Then, when Disney acquired Fox, Channing had given up on the character ever seeing the light of day. "When we decided to have Gambit in this movie, we knew it would be deeply gratifying for Channing," said Shawn.

12. Emma Corrin explained that Ryan Reynolds improvs the "entire time," so working with him felt like a "masterclass in that kind of comedy and that kind of genre of film."

13. Matthew Macfadyen revealed that he improvised the moment when Mr. Paradox says "bee-tee-dubs." He was inspired by his daughter who says it to him all the time.

14. The "Cajun and French flavor" in Gambit's portrayal was all improvised by Channing Tatum. "We had scripted a lot of those borderline nonsensical lines. We wrote them into the screenplay," Shawn explained. "But then Channing added a lot of Cajun and French flavor. To this day, there are some things he says — like when he sees Hugh drinking his liquor and he throws a charged-up card his way, he says something that sounds a lot like cooyain-zwah — where I don’t fucking know the words. When Deadpool kept saying 'That’s not a word. Who is your dialect coach … the Minions?' that was very much all of us on set. We absolutely loved it."

15. Going into the movie, Emma anticipated filming a lot of scenes in front of a green screen, like many other MCU movies do, but ended up not using any. "I was really expecting a lot of green screen work," they said. "It was incredible because I don't think we had one scene that was against a green screen."

16. Emma went back and watched a bit of Sir Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy's performances as Charles Xavier when crafting their own portrayal of Cassandra. They said, "I was just curious when someone's power is so internal in their mind how that is portrayed, or if there are certain things that I should be looking for, 'cause you know, the Marvel fans love an Easter egg."

17. Finally, in the movie, Deadpool comments, "Cocaine is the one thing that Feige says is off limits," and they come up with new words to use for cocaine throughout. But turns out Kevin Feige didn't actually say that. "The truth is: Ryan polices himself more than anyone," said Kevin. "There is an art to the Deadpool insult, to the Deadpool quip, to the Deadpool crude reference or language. He actually is the perfect arbiter of what that fine line is."