Nathan Fillion Shares the Heartwarming Story Behind His DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Role as Headpool
Nathan Fillion may have recently stolen the spotlight as Guy Gardner in Superman, but his ties to comic book movies run deep, and not just in the DCU.
Over in the Marvel world, Fillion has already played multiple roles, with his biggest MCU moment coming in Deadpool & Wolverine as the fan-favorite floating head, Headpool.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Fillion revealed how his friendship with Ryan Reynolds led to the hilarious cameo, and why it was years in the making. Fillion said:
"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."
That original cameo saw Fillion briefly appear as a towel guy at the strip club where Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa worked. Unfortunately, it never made it to the theatrical cut. Still, Reynolds tried to make it up to him.
"He 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."
By the time Deadpool & Wolverine rolled around, Reynolds was determined to get Fillion involved, this time for real.
"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."
That led to one of Fillion’s favorite compliments of his career.
"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."
Whether we’ll see the Deadpool Corps again remains a mystery, though rumors suggest they could pop up in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars. For now, Headpool might be a one-and-done for Fillion, but his comic book journey isn’t slowing down.
He’s set to return as Guy Gardner in Peacemaker season 2 and HBO’s upcoming Lanterns series.