How That Deadpool 2 X-Men Cameo Happened

The following contains massive Deadpool 2 spoilers.

Among the many showstopping moments in Deadpool 2, one of the best jokes in the film occurs shortly after Deadpool arrives at the Xavier School for Gifted Children, a.k.a. X-Men HQ.

Arguing in a seemingly empty hallway with Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic), the Merc with a Mouth (Ryan Reynolds) wonders out loud where all the other mutants are — part of a running joke about the lack of a budget to provide more than one or two X-Men in the Deadpool movies.

But then the camera switches angles and, with Deadpool in the foreground, we see an open door behind him — and the X-Men team all gathered in a study together. We spotted Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) before Beast quietly slides the door shut to avoid being noticed by an aggrieved Deadpool.

Director David Leitch told us how the shot came together. “That was interesting because Simon Kinberg was filming X-Men: Dark Phoenix in Montreal at the same time we were doing Deadpool,” he told Den of Geek. “So this was in the script but we were always wondering how we were going to be able to pull it off. The set supervisor, Dan Glass, who did the Matrix films, he came up with this idea of doing a composite, and getting the plates to match.

“So we shot our side here, and we sent the measurements and the camera positions and things up to Simon’s team on Dark Phoenix, and they shot the plate for that there,” continued Leitch. “Then we put the two together. So actually it turned out to be easier than we thought. If we would have had to get all those people in the room it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Missing from the scene is Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), with the latter especially notable since the movie chronicles her transformation into the title entity.

“It might have been one of those things where we’re up against it,” said Leitch about Turner’s absence. “And it’s like, who’s available that day by the time we had to get the shot and get it down to us…we’re grateful to have anyone we could get at that point.”

The scene (and the movie overall) also messes with the X-Men film continuity, not that that’s ever been an issue before. But in theory, the Deadpool movies take place in the present, while the current run of X-Men movies is set in previous decades. That means that Deadpool should logically be in the school at the same time as the mutants in the form of Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, etc…the older actors.

And what does this mean for Colossus, who’s been played to date in the other X-Men films (most recently in X-Men: Days of Future Past) by Daniel Cudmore? Our head hurts just thinking about it.

One thing is clear from the scene: with the exception of the ever-patient Colossus, it seems like the X-Men don’t want anything to do with Wade Wilson at this point in time.

Deadpool 2 is out in theaters now.