Warning: This article contains SPOILERS!
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Deadpool 2 had its fair shared of surprises, but one that was (literally) one of the biggest was no doubt the reveal that the Juggernaut was one of the surprise villains of the film. However Juggernaut wasn’t alone, as his long time comic book cohort, Black Tom Cassidy finally made his own X-Men movie debut in Deadpool 2!
As we saw, Black Tom was one of the prisoners of the “Ice Box” mutant detention center that Deadpool and Russell Collins (aka “Firefist”) get locked in. Tom (played by 12 Strong and Baywatch actor Jack Kesy) is the big dog in the cell block, and immediately starts antagonizing Deadpool and Russell. However, Deadpool being Deadpool, he turns Tom’s gruff, tough, threats into a running gag, where “Black Tom” is (in Wade’s mind) equivalent to being an actual black man.
It’s probably one of Deadpool 2‘s best running jokes, but as Ryan Reynolds revealed in an interview with Empire Film Podcast, Black Tom wasn’t intended to be the butt of the joke, at first: the X-Men villain was meant to be an actual, full-fledged villain in the sequel – until 20th Century Fox shut down that idea:
“Black Tom was just in the movie as a supervillain who has incredible powers and all sorts of stuff. It was the f*cking studio that said ‘You guys are over budget, you can’t afford this. So his whole storyline got trimmed way back and Jack Kesy, who played him, is such a sport and stayed on in the role.”
To be fair, this kind process of having the rug pulled out from under you is typical in the life of an actor – especially when playing smaller roles in bigger movies. As Reynolds went on to explain, Kesy truly lived up to the idiom that there are no small parts, just small actors, when faced with the choice of whether to continue in the role:
“I called Jack and I was like ‘Jack I hate to tell you this man: we’re cutting out most of Black Tom.’ And this was before we shot, so I said to him ‘if you want to play the role still it’s like three or four days’ work; obviously if you want to duck out, I totally understand.’ He was like ‘No, no, I’m in.’ He was so sweet to do it, because he’s an amazing actor. So Black Tom Cassidy – we did end up using his name for kind of a running joke in the movie where Deadpool falsely accuses Cable of being racist – and you know, we sort of thought that was somewhat ridiculous, so why not?”
Kesy has quickly jumped out as a fan-fav element of Deadpool 2, and fans are going to be discussing his role (and the joke surrounding it) for the foreseeable future. While it might not have been the biggest or most satisfying role to play in this film, clearly Kesy has earned himself some clout in the genre, and may one day get a much bigger superhero or supervillain role tossed his way. Based on what we saw in Deadpool 2, he deserves it.
Deadpool 2 is now in theaters. The X-Men movie universe will continue when X-Men: Dark Phoenix opens February 14, 2019, followed by The New Mutants on August 2, 2019.
