Henry Cavill Agreed To His MCU Cameo In Deadpool & Wolverine For Two Reasons

Early in Shawn Levy's 2024 superhero trifle "Deadpool & Wolverine," Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) learns that his entire universe will, within the next few thousand years, unravel and disappear from the multiverse entirely. It seems that every universe has an "Anchor Being" that, upon their death, brings about the end of their entire timeline. Of course, if the birth and death of a single being causes an entire timeline to end, that's not so much an "Anchor" as a "Harbinger of Doom." (It's best not to think too hard about the concept of Anchor Beings.)

Deadpool is told that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was his universe's Anchor Being, and his death at the end of "Logan" started to make things unravel. Deadpool feels he can save his universe by replacing the dead Wolverine with another one, kidnapped from a different alternate universe. He steals a dimension-hopping widget and begins looking for a suitable replacement. In an amusing montage, the antihero meets multiple Wolverines, all of them played by Jackman, in the hopes one of them won't try to kill him immediately.

In one alternate universe, Deadpool approaches a Wolverine fixing a motorcycle in a dingy garage, and finds that he is played not by Hugh Jackman but by British actor Henry Cavill. Fans of superhero cinema might know Cavill best from playing Superman in the now-dead DC Extended Universe, and Deadpool, being aware that he is in a movie, addresses this Wolverine as Henry Cavill. He even calls him "Cavillrine."

In a 2024 interview with Variety, Levy said Cavill was happy to provide a quick cameo, and said the actor appeared for two simple reasons: One, the appearance was just playful fun, and two, it was amusing to skip from DC to Marvel.

Comic book readers, of course, will instantly know the significance of passing from the world of DC Comics into the world of Marvel Comics. The two companies have, for many, many decades, enjoyed a major, combative rivalry in the publishing world, with each one fighting for the lion's share of comic book readers. DC, of course, is the home of heroes like Batman, Superman, Booster Gold, Ambush Bug, Snowflame, and that one Green Lantern that's a planet. Marvel, meanwhile, oversees the Hulk, She-Hulk, Red Hulk, Planet Hulk, and at least four others that aren't Hulk. DC and Marvel each have their own extensive universes, but it's very rare that the two companies will cross over. And while there are kids who read both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, each one tends to attract very brand-loyal fans.

Hence, why seeing Superman playing Wolverine was such a coup. Cavill, of course, has ended his tenure as Superman, but his association with the role lingers, and Levy was very aware of this when he asked Cavill to appear in one scene as Cavillrine:

"If we're going to talk about him, we must call him by his actual credited name, the Cavillrine, which Ryan coined. I knew it was undeniable as soon as Ryan came up with that term. He said 'yes' right away because he knew it would be subversive and playful. It was also with a lot of affection for him and his body of work, and playing with his legacy as a DC hero now that he's appearing as a variant of a Marvel hero."

It was a cute industry-insider-friendly cameo in a film that feels like it's comprised of about 85% cute industry-insider-friendly cameos.

Playing into the insider-baseball gag even further, Henry Cavill posted a picture of himself in his Wolverine getup on his Instagram account. He commented, "To be safe, I shaved the moustache off for this one. Just the moustache."

This is in reference to Cavill's work on Christopher McQuarrie's 2018 actioner "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," wherein he sported a healthy mustache. Cavill grew the mustache specifically for the role and was under contract to keep it for the length of the shoot; the filmmakers wouldn't want to replace it with false whiskers should Cavill want to shave.

Infamously, Zack Snyder's superhero film "Justice League" ran into dramatic problems during production, including a personal tragedy in Snyder's life that forced him to step away from filming. Cavill played Superman in "Justice League," and he thought his scenes were completed, but the studio hired Joss Whedon to complete "Justice League" after Snyder's departure, as well as to re-write large portions of the film. Whedon also had to shoot several new scenes to make sure "Justice League" was coherent.

By the time Whedon started shooting, however, Cavill was saddled with his "Mission: Impossible" mustache, which he wasn't allowed to shave. This was an issue for shooting new "Justice League" footage, as Superman is notoriously clean-shaven. Whedon's solution was to film Cavill with the mustache and then use CGI to remove it. The results are ... noticeable. Cavill's absent mustache was the cause of much online brouhaha.

All of that is backstory to Cavill's crack about how he shaved his mustache to play Wolverine. "Deadpool & Wolverine," and seemingly some of the surrounding marketing materials around it, will likely be a mystery to anyone who hasn't been steeped in superhero movie journalism for at least a decade.

The mustache, however, was merely one reference "Mission: Impossible" reference in "Deadpool & Wolverine." It seems that there was an additional — and very clever — Cavill-adjacent gag written right into the film's screenplay. Co-screenwriters Reynolds, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick described the Cavillrine character in the script as "Hopper-rene," although it's unclear who Hopper is. Deadline published the entire final draft of the "Deadpool & Wolverine" screenplay on their website, and the scene played out just as described above, just with one notable reference included. 

"Before DP can finish his sentence, Hopper-rene loads his arms, 'Mission: Impossible' style. Claws protract from each fist and, BOOM! He sends Deadpool through multiple pillars." 

The "loads his arms" bit is a reference to the "arm-cocking" gesture that Cavill made in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout," prepping his fists for a fight scene. Cavill has gone on record about the arm-cocking, saying that he, during a multi-day shoot, was getting exhausted, and had to "prep" his arms a little to shake out the soreness. He made two brief punches toward the ground, and then put up his dukes. Director McQuarrie liked the gesture so much, he asked that Cavill continue to do it in additional takes. It ended up in the final cut of the film.

Although the character was written as "Hopper-rene," it was clear that Reynolds, Reese, and Wrenick were referring to Cavill. Indeed, the line of dialogue about "we will treat you so much better than those s***-f***s down the street" is also in the script. This alludes to Disney treating Cavill better than Warner Bros. Both studios, not incidentally, are located in Burbank, California, just over one mile from each other. One can walk from Disney to Warner Bros. in less than 30 minutes. 

One of Wolverine's more notable non-superhero features, taken from the original Marvel Comics, is that he smokes cigars. This makes sense for a character that can heal quickly from any wound. There's no reason why Wolverine shouldn't be smoking, drinking, or even taking hard drugs all the time, as he runs no risk of a hangover or any long-term (or even short-term) health problems. But it's one thing to draw a cigar and another to ask a live-action actor to actually smoke on camera. 

It seems that Cavill (who we've argued simply feels right in a Marvel movie) was unused to smoking cigars, and having one in his mouth for the length of his scene caused him to get a little sick. Cavill actually had to smoke that thing for a full-length eight-hour working day, and he was overwhelmed by how putrid it was. Levy talked about the cigar in a 2024 interview with The New York Times, saying: 

"I think we all were [committed], including poor Henry Cavill, who not only had that pumped-up muscular body but kept that cigar lit and in his mouth for the entirety of the shoot day. [...] I remember hearing the next day that Henry was sick to his stomach because he had been inhaling cigar smoke for eight hours straight, but never once did he waver."

It was only one day of shooting, but Cavill was not going to half-ass it. 

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is available to purchase on Prime Video.