Deadpool & Wolverine originally had a scene where Robert Downey Jr. cameoed as Tony Stark.
Downey Jr. famously played Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU for over a decade, with the character then dying in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. In July 2024, it was announced that Downey Jr. would be returning to Marvel Studios; however, he’ll now be playing the villainous Doctor Doom.
Speaking with IndieWire, Deadpool & Wolverine co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick revealed that they had originally penned a scene for Downey Jr. to return in.
What did Deadpool & Wolverine’s co-writers say about the Robert Downey Jr. cameo?
“We had wanted him to do a cameo. We had written that scene [to start] with Happy and Downey,” Wernick said, referencing an early scene in the movie where Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) tries to convince Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) to let him join the Avengers.
“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,” Reese continued.
Wernick said that, while they didn’t initially know about Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom casting, there was “no way he was going to do both.” He explained, “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.”
Speaking further on what Downey Jr.’s role would’ve looked like, Reese said, “It was a version of what you saw in the sense that he rejected Wade. He just said he wasn’t a team player or whatever and questioned his team-player abilities. So it was actually pretty close to the scene that you saw. It just had two guys instead of one. And then Jon [Favreau] was, graciously, connected to it from the start. It worked out great. I mean, look, we would’ve loved to have Downey. 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 added, “ We haven’t told anybody this, but there was a version of that scene very, very early on that wasn’t written but was conceived that had all the Avengers in the room. And Wade was rejected and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is currently playing in United States theaters.
