Brad Pitt's Marvel Cameo Inspired An Amusing Gag In A Ryan Reynolds Kids' Movie

Brad Pitt might hold the record for briefest Marvel movie cameo, thanks to his role in Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool 2." The Fox-produced Marvel movie was directed by David Leitch, who has long been Pitt's stunt double. Leitch was able to call in a favor and have Pitt join "Deadpool 2" in a two-second silent cameo. The movie saw Reynolds' Deadpool putting together a team of heroes called X-Force, only for almost the entire team to be immediately wiped out while attempting to parachute in high winds. Deadpool was forced to look on in horror as, one by one, his teammates were blown to grisly deaths.

One member of Deadpool's X-Force team was Vanisher. With the power of invisibility, Vanisher spent much of his brief stint in "Deadpool 2" unseen and silent. When Deadpool was interviewing X-Force candidates, Vanisher didn't turn up, setting up a gag in which Deadpool assumed the invisible hero was right in front of him, only to realize he was running late. As the team prepared for their skydive to intercept Cable, all that could be seen of Vanisher was his parachute, strapped to his invisible body.

When X-Force's one and only mission quickly went wrong, Vanisher was blown into some power lines. As he was electrocuted, his invisibility briefly dropped, and audiences were shocked to see Brad Pitt — although, sadly, not quite as shocked as Vanisher. That was all that was ever seen of Pitt as Vanisher, but Reynolds hilariously referenced the cameo in another more recent movie.

In 2024, Reynolds starred in the children's movie "IF," appearing alongside the movie's writer and director John Krasinski. The movie saw Reynolds playing Cal, whose job it was to rehouse imaginary friends (IFs) after the children who dreamed them up had outgrown and forgotten them. Cal teamed up with a young girl called Bea (Cailey Fleming), whom he brought to a retirement home for forgotten IFs. Among the IFs Cal was working with was Keith, a silent and invisible character. Keith only features in the film as a recurring joke, in which Cal and other characters keep tripping over him.

In a nod to his joke cameo as Vanisher in Reynolds' "Deadpool 2," Brad Pitt is credited as Keith in "IF." This marks an even shorter "cameo" for Pitt, who doesn't actually appear in the movie (or even speak) at all. However, for any Marvel fans watching, Pitt's credit is a fun callback to his blink-and-you'll-miss-it role in "Deadpool 2."

The Deadpool movies continued this tradition of putting major stars in easy to miss roles with the third installment in the franchise, "Deadpool & Wolverine." The multiverse-spanning movie saw numerous different Deadpools appear, and among them was Matthew McConaughey's Cowboypool, Nathan Fillion's Headpool, and Reynolds' own wife, Blake Lively, as Lady Deadpool. "IF" was also not the first time Reynolds had fun with his Marvel connections in another movies, as "Free Guy" featured a brief appearance from Captain America actor Chris Evans.