‘Deadpool 2’ Acknowledges TJ Miller’s Recent Scandals in This Subtle Way

When TJ Miller was accused of sexual assault last December, fans wondered whether it would impact his role in Deadpool 2. It did not, reportedly because production was already completed, but the filmmakers did acknowledge the controversy in a subtle way during post-production.

During the film, a news report briefly plays onscreen. At the bottom of the screen is the news ticker that has been a staple of the cable news industry since the early ’90s.

And in the news ticker? “Christopher Plummer Refuses Role in Deadpool 2.”

Plummer, the veteran actor best known for his role in The Sound of Music, stepped in at the last minute last year to replace Kevin Spacey in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World. Spacey’s scenes had already been filmed, but the director elected to digitally remove him and replace him with Plummer, an actor Scott had reportedly originally wanted for the role before landing on Spacey during the casting process.

Given Deadpool’s absurdist sense of humor and tendency to acknowledge the real world in his films, a common joke on the internet became “Plummer should replace TJ Miller as Weasel and then just never comment on it in the movie and act like it didn’t happen.”

They did not — and while the movie says it was because Plummer said no, the likely reality is that they did not approach anyone, having already publicly committed to keeping Miller in the film. A last-minute wave of bad publicity came when he was arrested for phoning in a death threat, and after that Ryan Reynolds confirmed that Weasel will not appear in X-Force, but it is not clear how, or if, his role was reduced in Deadpool 2.

Josh Brolin’s Cable and Zazie Beetz’ Domino joins the rest of Deadpool’s X-Force in Deadpool 2, which also includes Terry Crews. Beloved characters from the original like Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Dopinder (Karan Soni), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and T.J. Miller (Weasel) will also be making a return alongside Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds.

Deadpool 2 cruises into theaters on May 18, while X-Men: Dark Phoenix lands in theaters in February 2019. The New Mutants is slated to hit theaters August 2019.