Before Deadpool 2, Brad Pitt Almost Starred In Another R-Rated Comic Book Adaptation

To date, Brad Pitt's amusing blip of a cameo as Vanisher in "Deadpool 2" is his sole onscreen contribution to the superhero movie genre. Okay, that's not entirely true: He voiced Metro Man in the animated comedy "Megamind," but that was a supporting character and a goof on Superman. Still, Pitt's had decades to bring his leading man cachet to strap on the spandex, and he's kept his distance.

There was a time, however, when Pitt was nearly persuaded to take a prominent role in a comic book flick. Unsurprisingly, it was an auteur-driven project that flouted the conventions of the genre. It was also, if its filmmaker could pull together the financing, set to be the most violent and profane superhero movie of all time. The screenplay was an invigorating read: audacious, hilarious and tightly structured. Nothing's a sure thing before cameras roll, but this project felt perversely blessed.

Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman's screenplay adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s "Kick-Ass" had the town abuzz in the late 2000s. There was just one problem: No studio would touch it. While the graphic violence and hard R-rated dialogue were a turn-off, the biggest problem was Hit-Girl, a ten-year-old murder machine who's been coached in her lethal trade by her Batman-esque father, Big Daddy.

Realizing he'd need an A-lister for Big Daddy (because the title character, a teenager-turned-masked-vigilante, needed to be a fresh-ish face), Vaughn brought in Brad Pitt, whom he'd worked with on Guy Ritchie's classic 2000 caper flick "Snatch," to work on the film as a producer. His ulterior motive was to cast Pitt as Big Daddy, but this was not to be.

It's as true today as it was in the late 2000s: If you get Brad Pitt to star in your movie, a studio is almost certainly going to make your movie. Vaughn really needed Pitt, too. The filmmaker mortgaged his house to finance "Kick-Ass," which, per a 2020 THR article on the film, he considered a "scary" proposition.

It's unclear just how far down the road Vaughn got with Pitt, but we do know what took him out of the running. Once Quentin Tarantino offered Pitt the role of U.S. Army Lieutenant Aldo Raine in "Inglourious Basterds," the star was immediately unavailable. So Vaughn turned his sights to a star who, while a loud-and-proud comic book fan, wasn't quite as bankable as Pitt.

Nicolas Cage wound up being perfect casting as Big Daddy, an oddly earnest, loving father who's weaponizing his daughter to help him track down and kill the mobsters who got him kicked off the police force and drove his wife to suicide. Vaughn and casting directors Sarah Finn and Lucinda Syson hit on every choice, and he wound up delivering a viscerally exciting movie. But it took a raucous Hall H reception at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con to convince a distributor, Lionsgate, to release the movie. I was there, and, outside of the "Twilight" panels (which were like Beatles concerts), I've never seen a movie own SDCC like "Kick-Ass" did (and all Vaughn did was show three clips).

I've heard rumors that there was a "Kick-Ass 2," but I refuse to believe this.