Credit: Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios
Just a heads up before we get started: This article is full of spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine, and will provide details on every cameo in the film. If you don't want to know about this stuff, you should leave now. Or if you actually want more spoilers, you can read our spoiler-filled breakdown of the film's plot here.
Deadpool & Wolverine is an odd movie, because it's caught in between several different worlds. Obviously, the big two are the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the old, dead X-Men franchise, but more broadly it also covers every Marvel movie property that didn't come from Sony or Marvel itself. It's a lot of stuff that has never had any connections to each other. Even Fox's Daredevil and Punisher movies, released 14 months apart two decades ago, managed to be completely unrelated stories. Putting a bow on all that with a single film is too much to ask, even with Deadpool's ability to break the fourth wall--but Deadpool & Wolverine makes a solid effort thanks to its cavalcade of cameos that cover a lot more of those old Marvel flicks than I would have expected--including a couple that were never even made.
The in-universe story conceit behind these appearances is that a large stretch of it takes place in the Void--a place at the end of time that's full of variants of heroes and villains alike, which the Time Variance Authority has exiled for one reason or another. Just as this setting allowed the Loki series to pull in a bunch of amazing alternate Lokis, the Void allows Deadpool & Wolverine to include whatever past Marvel folks it wanted.
In all, Deadpool & Wolverine covers nearly the full breadth of Marvel on the big screen, including the X-Men films. Though, oddly enough, it lacks any actual X-Men that we know already--all the characters from those films who pop up here are villains. It's hard to know what that means, but hopefully it's that they're saving those folks for when the MCU's franchise plot finally kicks back in after spending the last several years on a bunch of different standalone story threads.
In any case, I'm not sure how many more cameo appearances Deadpool & Wolverine could handle, since it's got a ton of them as it is. It can be tough to remember them all, so we've made the list below to help you keep track. Take a look.
Happy Hogan
Deadpool meets with Jon Favreu's Happy Hogan--Iron Man's loyal helper person--in a bid to join the Avengers at the beginning of the film, but Happy turns him down.
Wolverine (Henry Cavill)
While most of the other Wolverines that Deadpool meets are also played by Hugh Jackman, there's one big surprise in his time-hopping montage early in the film: a variant of Wolverine played by Henry Cavill--a joke about Cavill being a common fan-cast replacement for Jackman.
The Hulk
Another alternate Wolverine that Deadpool encounters is right in the middle of a fight with a version of Incredible Hulk, though we only see him very briefly.
Johnny Storm (Chris Evans)
In one of the best jokes in the movie, Deadpool & Wolverine dramatically reveals that Chris Evans is playing a member of the superhero resistance at the end of time--but he's playing his Fantastic Four character, Johnny Storm, rather than Captain America. And Johnny has, uh, a very different sort of vibe from the MCU's most wholesome grandpa, so this is a great get.
Pyro
One of the main antagonist characters in the Void is Aaron Stanford's Pyro, from X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. Pyro was a student at Xavier's school and was best pals with Iceman and Rogue until he joined up with Magneto at the end of X2.
Sabretooth (Tyler Mane)
There have been a couple different Sabretooths they could have used here, but the one they went with is Tyler Mane from the original X-Men. That movie inexplicably didn't address the fact that he and Wolverine are brothers, but Deadpool & Wolverine thankfully does.
Toad
Another one of Magneto's goofy henchmen from the original X-Men, Toad is played by Darth Maul actor Ray Park in both that film and this one.
Elektra
Jennifer Garner's character hails from the 2003 Daredevil film and its 2006 Elektra spin-off, the latter of which was a box-office bomb and one of the worst-reviewed Marvel films ever. In Deadpool & Wolverine, Elektra is part of a resistance movement in the Void against the evil Cassandra Nova.
Blade
In one of Deadpool & Wolverine's most delightful surprises, Wesley Snipes popped up as Blade alongside Elektra in this resistance group, and he gets possibly the best line in the movie--let's just say he doesn't seem too optimistic about Mahershala Ali's version of Blade ever happening.
Gambit
We saw the mutant Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that's not the version of the character we got here. Instead, we get Channing Tatum's Gambit. Tatum was attached for half a decade to a standalone X-Men spin-off movie about the character, but it got stuck in development hell until Disney killed the project after its merger with Fox in 2019. And now we finally get Tatum's version of the character, if only for a few minutes--but at least we got to see him in action.
X-23
The young girl that Wolverine had to help in Logan is all grown up, and she also appears in the Void as part of the resistance, giving this new Wolverine a pep talk that he desperately needs before the big showdown with Cassandra Nova, and then helping with the battle.
Other assorted villainous mutants and thugs
The evil Cassandra Nova's forces in the Void include a number of other mutant baddies from previous films. Specifically: Psylocke, Azazel (pictured), Lady Deathstrike, Callisto and the Juggernaut, none of whom are played by the same actors who portrayed them previously. In addition, the guy wearing the red-striped t-shirt is a boss baddie called The Russian from The Punisher.
Deadpool Corps
Credit: Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios
We meet a variety of alternate Deadpools in the Void, including the adorabl Dogpool, and among them is a pair of celebrity cameos--Ryan Reynolds's wife Blake Lively is Lady Deadpool, and Matthew McConaughey is the voice of Cowboy Deadpool.
