Part of the beauty of an irreverent and fourth wall-shattering character like Deadpool is that his films allow for a lot of freedom for the filmmakers to have fun. A big part of that fun is packing in numerous winks at the audience and references to other entries in the superhero genre. While Deadpool 2 is introducing Cable, the X-Force and some guy named Peter to the Fox X-verse, there was actually almost a funny appearance from another former Fox hero: none other than current Captain America Chris Evans reprising The Human Torch. Deadpool 2 screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reesse explained the appearance that didn't happen, saying:
There were different codas kicked around. There were more X-Force interviews that were talked about. One was Chris Evans as Human Torch.
A lot of the early reactions and reviews for Deadpool 2 have hyped what is apparently an all-time great post-credits scene. I don't know how this would have stacked up to that, but seeing Chris Evans as The Human Torch, a.k.a. Johnny Storm, interviewing to be a member of the X-Force sounds like an absolute blast and exactly the kind of fun surprise we want from Deadpool and post-credits scenes in general. Chris Evans is so recognizable now as Captain America in the MCU that his superhero origins are sometimes forgotten. Getting to see him in such a funny context would have been great. Plus I'm sure there would have been some fun jabs at Fantastic Four and the boy scout Steve Rogers. So why didn't it happen? Did Chris Evans simply have no desire to do it? Rhett Reese explained to Uproxx why Johnny Storm didn't flame on for the film, saying:
No, no, we never got that far. Someone had the idea we actually did and we thought that was better. But we definitely had a lot more X-Force interviews with bizarre, random people coming in to interview.
Well, given the hullabaloo around Deadpool 2's post-credits scene, it's sounding like they made the right choice. Although now we're left wondering what might have been. Our modern superhero age has shown us that you can never have too many post-credits scenes, and it's hard to argue what a fun moment this would have been for all the superhero movie fans flocking to theaters this weekend. I'd like to think that Chris Evans would have reprised the role of Johnny Storm if asked. Plus, the format of the X-Force interviews allows for many fun cameos like this, and I can't wait to see what the film delivers on this front. Such is the advantage of Deadpool's meta nature; cameos and references that would be distracting in other films are actually part of the formula in this film.
While we await for Human Torch and the rest of the Fantastic Four to return to the big screen in either the Fox X-verse or possibly even the MCU, you can see what superheroes do make an appearance when Deadpool 2 hits theaters this weekend. For all the biggest movies hitting theaters this year, check out our release schedule.
