A Marvel Actor Had Two Failed Attempts At Getting A Deadpool Cameo

At the climax of Shawn Levy's 2024 ultra-hit "Deadpool & Wolverine," a thriller centered on the multiverse, a dimensional rift opens up and hundreds of parallel universe versions of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) spill out. Deadpool and his co-star Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) are astonished at the variety of Deadpool variants from across hundreds of dimensions. One Deadpool is a baby. Another is a bandito. One is a comely lady. One of them is Welsh, and is played by Wrexham AFC player Paul Mullin. 

Weirdly, one of the Deadpools is a living skull with eyeballs — and a few stray vertebrae — that flies around with the aid of a propeller beanie. The severed head is credited as Headpool and voiced by Nathan Fillion, a nerd-friendly actor of the highest caliber. Fillion has appeared in geek favorites like "Firefly," "Slither," and "Super." He voiced Green Lantern in several DC Comics animated movies, and played a Green Lantern in live-action in James Gunn's "Superman." He also had a few cameos in James Gunn's other superhero films like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "The Suicide Squad." Indeed, /Film once noted that Headpool was secretly Fillion's fourth Marvel character. "Deadpool & Wolverine," then, was merely a feather in his cap. 

Headpool, however, was actually the culmination of a three-film effort to get Fillion in a "Deadpool" movie. Fillion recently spoke with EW, and the actor revealed that he and Reynolds had been trying to work together since the first "Deadpool" movies in 2016. Fillion almost had cameos in "Deadpool" and "Deadpool 2," but he didn't appear in either of those films for pesky reasons. Fillion may have been racking up cameos across the MCU, but Headpool was when his relationship with the MCU ... came to a head. 

Fillion explained that he had actually landed a small role in the first "Deadpool," but he was edited out of the theatrical cut. He played a towel handler in the strip club where the character of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, Fillion's "Firefly" co-star) worked. As the actor recalled: 

"I was actually in the first 'Deadpool.' My scene got cut out. [...] You'll have to remember I was filming 'Castle' at the time. It had to be a very small part, and I requested that I be unrecognizable. It's in a deleted-scenes thing. I think you can get it if you buy the movie digitally."

"Castle" was a detective series that Fillion headlined from 2009 to 2016, and filming on the series wasn't yet complete when "Deadpool" was being made. Fillion also revealed in the EW interview, however, that Ryan Reynolds made personal pleas that he return to audition for a part for "Deadpool 2." Sadly, he wasn't able to make it work. But Fillion was flattered by the attention, saying: 

"[Reynolds] asked me to come in and audition for something in the second 'Deadpool,' which was very generous of him. [...] We're still in touch. He's a very generous man, and he's very interested in sharing the wealth, honestly. He's got so many incredible opportunities, and he likes to remember his friends and spread those opportunities around."

That does sound very generous, given how successful that first "Deadpool" was. Fillion knew the movies were hits, and likely would have been in "Deadpool 2" were it not for other career obligations. It was at that time that Fillion was filming "The Santa Clarita Diet," which likely interfered with his schedule.

Fillion's work on "Deadpool & Wolverine" was all done in a recording booth; he (perhaps obviously) wasn't on set to provide the CGI movements of Deadpool's severed head. Reynolds, because he is such a generous fellow, called Fillion and demurely asked for a favor, and Fillion's response was astonishment. He agreed, and the two actors met to begin forming Headpool's gags: 

"Ryan would text me and say, 'Hey, would you do me a favor?' Like I'm doing him a favor. [...] We recorded a bunch of different stuff. We started at one character, then we moved over to being Headpool, and then we were futzing the jokes."

From the sound of it, a lot of the gags that Fillion came up with in his scant screen time were workshopped from an improv session. It's amazing to think that a blockbuster that made over $1.3 billion was spitballed on the spot. Of course, the film's animation department then created Headpool in CGI, so everything felt wholly realized. 

Fillion, as mentioned, starred as the Guy Gardner version of Green Lantern in James Gunn's "Superman," and will presumably reprise the role in Gunn's upcoming TV series "Lanterns." The actor also appeared in Gunn's TV series "Peacemaker," in addition to the "Guardians" movies mentioned above. Fillion is a friend of Ryan Reynolds, James Gunn, and was in the Joss Whedon camp back when that was a desirable place to be. Fillion is talented, but he seems to be getting far in his career by associating himself with creative, powerful friends. The actor's fans likely don't mind.