Nothing says “please let me be in your movie” quite like a video message where the other guy heckles you the entire time. That’s exactly what happened when Hugh Jackman turned up at Disney’s D23 showcase to lobby, on camera, for a spot in Avengers: Doomsday, with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool interrupting from off-screen the whole way through.
The bit opened the Doomsday portion of Marvel’s Anaheim showcase, and Jackman played it completely straight, which somehow made it funnier. He addressed Kevin Feige directly, framing the whole thing as a casual, definitely-not-planned check-in before asking if Marvel needed any extra help rounding out the cast. Deadpool, naturally, was not having it, pointing out that the movie already has something like twenty-plus people in it, so why exactly does Marvel need these two clowns as well.
This isn’t even Ryan Reynolds’ first attempt at wedging himself into Avengers: Doomsday this year. Weeks earlier, he crashed Marvel’s Hall H panel in person at Comic-Con, showed up in a grey X-Force suit under a fake name, and got shut down on stage by Robert Downey Jr., who insisted the film was already locked.
Running the same bit twice at two of Marvel’s biggest events in one summer is not exactly subtle, and fans have started treating the whole Avengers: Doomsday campaign less like a joke and more like a countdown.
After the D23 clip aired, both actors posted it to their own accounts, leaning even further into the theater of it all. Jackman captioned his version as something he was filming against his will, while Reynolds called it a hostage situation. Given that Jackman has repeatedly said he’s done playing Wolverine, this entire routine reads less like reluctance and more like a script neither of them can put down.
Whether Marvel actually confirms either of them for Avengers: Doomsday remains, officially, a mystery. Feige has kept the full cast list close to his chest, and the film’s synopsis, which spans three universes, leaves more than enough room for a surprise or two.
But considering how much box office chemistry Jackman and Reynolds generated in Deadpool & Wolverine, and how loudly Marvel has let both of them campaign for a comeback, betting against Avengers: Doomsday finding room for one more claw-and-katana cameo feels like a losing bet. December 18 is closer than it looks.
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