What Cable & Domino’s Actors Said About Being Left Out

It’s actually quite a feat to have been left out of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which was, as /Film’s Chris Evangelista put it, a disappointing cameo-fest. Whether you agree with the “disappointing” part, the “cameo-fest” part cannot be denied. “Deadpool & Wolverine” went further than any Marvel Cinematic Universe film yet (and maybe any film in general) when it came to guest appearances. This movie packed in a host of characters from the erstwhile 20th Century Fox Marvel universe, while also debuting several “What-If”-style heroes in the form of Channing Tatum’s Gambit and Henry Cavill’s “Cavill-rine.”

Beyond that, we got guest appearances from Wesley Snipes’ Blade, voice cameos from both Matthew McConaughey and star Ryan Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively, and even saw MCU characters such as Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan. The sheer amount of cameos in this film really is dizzying. So it’s gotta sting just a little bit to be left out of a movie where Reynolds and director Shawn Levy seemed determined to gather as many fan-favorites as possible.

Unfortunately for fans of the Fox era, this was the case for several beloved characters, with Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier, James Marsden’s Cyclops, and Halle Berry’s Storm all failing to appear in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” But beyond former X-Men, characters from previous Deadpool movies also didn’t make the cut, including Zazie Beetz’s Domino and Josh Brolin’s Cable. But why? Allow the actors themselves to explain.

Josh Brolin famously played Thanos in multiple MCU movies leading up to 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” but he also found time to appear in Fox’s cinematic Marvel enterprise. Just a year before the Mad Titan met his demise at the hands of Iron Man in “Endgame,” Brolin played Cable in “Deadpool 2.” The super soldier from the future begins as a villain but eventually teams up with Deadpool, surviving the events of the movie, seemingly to set up his return in a future installment. Unfortunately, that future installment was not “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which doesn’t feature Brolin in any way.

The real reason Josh Brolin wasn’t in “Deadpool & Wolverine”? Well, Co-writer Paul Wernick told IndieWire that the idea was to use “characters who didn’t get their proper ending at Fox to pay tribute to them.” Wernick added that Brolin’s Cable “was just in ‘Deadpool 2′” and that he is likely to “appear in the Fox-Marvel mash-up universe at some point.” All of which meant Brolin was never approached for the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman team-up in the first place.

But the 56-year-old doesn’t seem to worried about it. Brolin spoke to Bingeworthy host Mike DeAngelo about not being in the movie, despite the fact that he’s listed on the IMDB page for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” He said: “I so wanted to be in that movie,” adding:

“[Marvel] is a more complex labyrinth than [Prime Video series] ‘Outer Range’ will ever be, my friend. And I will never know where that went or what that is or what I’m involved with or what I’m not involved with —the MCU being involved now. Cable was a lot of fun. I really liked doing that role. That was a lot of fun.”

Still, Brolin doesn’t seem bitter about not being asked to return, with the actor going on to tell DeAngelo that he’s “absolutely in love with” Hugh Jackman, adding “I just think the coming together of [these characters] is just fantastic.”

Also introduced in “Deadpool 2,” Neena Thurman/Domino was a mercenary whose only superpower was that she was, essentially, lucky. Her actual superpower, however, is that she can manipulate the probability of reality. Played by Zazie Beetz in “Deadpool 2,” Domino shows up during Deadpool’s search for members of his X-Force, and forms a close bond with the Merc with a Mouth. Her membership in the newly-formed X-Force and her rapport with Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed hero seemed to indicate that we’d be seeing a lot more of Beetz’s Domino moving forward. Alas, in 2023, following the announcement that Hugh Jackman would be coming out of Logan retirement for the next “Deadpool” installment, Beetz confirmed she wouldn’t be returning as Domino for “Deadpool 3,” which had already started filming without her at the time. 

After being asked about improvising with Reynolds for the then-upcoming threequel, the “Joker” actress told Decider, “Well I’m actually not in ‘Deadpool 3,’ so I don’t know what they’re doing [about improvisation]. I’m assuming they’re probably taking a pause. I’m excited to watch it.” A graceful reply, to be sure. But it’s hard to imagine Beetz wasn’t a little let down to be left out of “Deadpool 3” — especially since earlier that same year she seemed optimistic about Domino returning, telling ScreenRant:

“I am crossing my fingers, hoping that Domino will be a part of this and if not, that’s also all good. But it’s just such a great crew, such a great team. I just love Deadpool. I love Domino so much. If it’s not this, maybe I’ll do my own Domino origins or something like that.”

“Deadpool & Wolverine” has well and truly obliterated the box office, making more than a billion dollars worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time in the process. No doubt a lot of this success is down to the cavalcade of cameos contained therein. It’s the same story as “Spiderman: No Way Home,” which tempted fans of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spideys with their triumphant return. Not content with resurrecting Hugh Jackman’s Logan, however, “Deadpool & Wolverine” went above and beyond, turning the film into what was essentially a 127-minute cameo montage — and it seemed to work in the film’s favor.

All of which is to say that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige — and no doubt Disney CEO Bob Iger — will have taken note, and will surely be green-lighting several similar cameo-filled exploits in the near future. As for Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds has proven that teaming his crass hero with other Marvel legends is a recipe for success, so not only will we almost certainly see him return, but we might well see him do so alongside an established MCU character (Thor seems like a safe bet given his brief appearance in “Deadpool & Wolverine”).

So, while Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz found themselves without a cameo in this latest MCU box office juggernaut, there is plenty of scope for them to appear in forthcoming entries. That is, if Feige isn’t feeling weird about using Brolin as anyone other than Thanos in the MCU, which may well have played into him being left out of “Deadpool 3.” For now, we await the next cameo montage to find out what happens on that front.