Following two record-breaking weekends in theaters, Deadpool & Wolverine's cast and crew are finally free to talk spoilers! In a lengthy interview with Variety, director Shawn Levy started by revealing how Wesley Snipes' return as Blade happened.
Crediting Ryan Reynolds with reaching out to the actor, the filmmaker said it came down to the desire to "explore themes of legacy, characters and their endings" and give the Daywalker the send-off he never received.
He added, "Wesley has not played Blade in a long time. He and Ryan have not been in close touch in a very long time. But we made clear to Wesley that this was not going for a joke. This was out of reverence for his legacy as this iconic character."
Snipes' return as Blade was no joke, but he did drop a pretty hilarious line about there only ever being one Blade (a reference to the troubled journey to theaters the reboot starring Mahershala Ali has had).
"That was a scripted line, and Wesley thought it was hysterical," Levy confirmed. "We tried a bunch of reactions from Deadpool but ultimately went with that eyebrows-raised-Deadpool-fourth-wall-breaking look."
The Deadpool & Wolverine director then shifted gears to discuss Channing Tatum's Gambit debut, confirming he was among those who met with the actor about helming the ill-fated solo movie while it was stuck in development hell at 20th Century Fox.
"When we decided to have Gambit in this movie, we knew it would be deeply gratifying for Channing," Levy tells the trade. "We had scripted a lot of those borderline nonsensical lines. We wrote them into the screenplay. But then Channing added a lot of Cajun and French flavor. When Deadpool kept saying 'That’s not a word. Who is your dialect coach...the Minions?' that was very much all of us on set. We absolutely loved it."
Levy also confirmed the jokes about Hugh Jackman's divorce and Elektra's playful jab at Daredevil (which alluded to her real-life former marriage to Ben Affleck) "wouldn’t be in the movie if Hugh and Jen didn’t think they were funny."
As for whether Affleck was ever approached about suiting up as the Man Without Fear again, he only said, "Early on, when we were looking at a 70-name menu of Marvel characters, Daredevil was on one of those lists, but never since those earliest of conversations, and never to the point of outreach or offers or anything like that."
"We made contact with everyone featured in the Fox tribute reel halfway through our end credits — and that’s dozens of actors who have been a part of that legacy," Levy continued. "There was a brief conversation about, 'Should we do the Vinnie Jones’ Juggernaut? Should we do a CGI juggernaut?' Ultimately, we thought that we had enough bringbacks in Aaron Stanford, Tyler, Jen and Wesley that we thought, 'Let’s do another variant [with a different actor] and keep it non-CGI.' So we used Aaron Reed, who plays Dude in 'Free Guy.'"
Finally, Levy addressed perhaps Deadpool & Wolverine's biggest cameo by revealing how Henry Cavill ended up playing a Wolverine Variant in the movie.
"If we’re going to talk about him, we must call him by his actual credited name, the Cavillerine, 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."
Stay tuned for more Deadpool & Wolverine spoiler talk later today.