Nathan Fillion delivered a scene-stealing turn as Guy Gardner in Superman, but over in the MCU, he's already played four different characters.
He was an alien inmate in Guardians of the Galaxy, showed up on signage as Simon Williams/Wonder Man in a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 deleted scene, and portrayed Master Karja in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. However, his biggest role was arguably as Headpool in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly about joining the DCU, Fillion revealed that his role in the threequel came together after he missed out on appearing in 2016's Deadpool and its 2018 sequel, Deadpool 2 (both of which were produced by 20th Century Fox).
"I was actually in the first Deadpool," Fillion told the site. "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."
In the sequence, Fillion briefly appears as a towel guy at the strip club where Morena Baccarin's Vanessa was working. The actor went on to explain that Ryan Reynolds did his best to make it up to his friend by trying to secure him a role in the sequel. Unfortunately, that also didn't pan out.
"He asked me to come in and audition for something in the second Deadpool, which was very generous of him," Fillion explained. "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."
When Deadpool & Wolverine rolled around, "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."
Fillion continued, "We did a lot of stuff that never made it to the movie, but then there came a day where they asked me to go down the street and record it in an official recording booth."
"Shawn Levy, the director, called me just before I was about to leave the house and he said, 'We're all listening to your recordings that you sent us, and we don't really see any reason to rerecord these.' I considered it a real compliment that my recording booth was movie quality."
It's not clear whether we'll see the Deadpool Corps again, though it's certainly possible that they'll appear in The Void in Avengers: Doomsday. As of now, though, neither Reynolds nor Hugh Jackman has been confirmed for the movie (both are expected to appear in Secret Wars, at least).
So, Headpool could be a one-and-done for Fillion, but the actor has a bright future as Guy Gardner in the DCU, as he'll next appear in Peacemaker season 2 and Lanterns.
Deadpool & Wolverine is available on Digital, 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Disney+. Superman, meanwhile, is now playing in theaters.