Robert Downey Jr. in Deadpool & Wolverine? How the legendary cameo almost happened

By Dan Girolamo Published August 9, 2024

Robert Downey Jr. stands in the middle of the street. — Marvel Studios

By now, it’s widely known that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Victor Von Doom. However, an early draft of Deadpool & Wolverine included a scene with Downey as Tony Stark.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) met with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) in 2018 to discuss joining the Avengers. After a brief discussion, Happy rejected Wade from the superhero team.

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That’s the scene audiences saw in theaters, which was not the original plan. According to Deadpool & Wolverine scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the scene at Avengers Tower originally included Tony.

“That’s true,” Reese told The Hollywood Reporter about Downey’s potential involvement in Deadpool & Wolverine. “That’s definitely something we were toying with. The MCU clearly had bigger plans for Downey, which we’ve just learned, which is the Doctor Doom thing. Ultimately, I think that’s why it didn’t happen, though I don’t have the real reason it didn’t happen. There was talk. It was going to be Downey and Jon Favreau in the scene together.

Wernick added, “There is a script. We have the Downey draft.”

Presenting Victor Von Doom.

Robert Downey Jr. stars in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday, in theaters May 2026. #SDCC pic.twitter.com/xWQx9owZjG

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 28, 2024

Reynolds initially wrote the scene to feature Wade and Stark without Happy. However, the writers designed a backup scene with Happy just in case Downey or Marvel nixed the idea. In the end, the Deadpool & Wolverine creative team went with Happy instead of Tony, which ended up being the right decision because of Downey’s future Marvel plans.

“Jon was amazing about it,” Reese explained. “He hung in there while it was still undetermined for a little while, and then ultimately, he was very gracious about having it expand out a little bit. We did love the idea of Tony Stark being in there, but we also perfectly understand why it didn’t happen given that Downey jumped up on stage and became Dr. Doom not 10 seconds after our movie came out. So it was clear that that was the path that we didn’t realize was the path.”

Deadpool & Wolverine is now in theaters.

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