From the moment it was announced, Deadpool & Wolverine promised to be unlike anything Marvel Studios has ever produced. For starters, it was interweaving a franchise that began at another studio into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something that Marvel President Kevin Feige has never done. Beyond that, it would be relentlessly R-rated, another MCU first. Leading man Ryan Reynolds took things one step further when he brought Hugh Jackman out of Wolverine retirement to don the claws one more time, promising that the then-untitled Deadpool 3 would be “not touching” the legacy of Jackman’s Wolverine that ended in Logan (2017). With that knowledge, it became clear that variants would be at play in Deadpool & Wolverine, which sparked theories that actors from Marvel past could reprise their roles in this multiversal adventure.
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Warning – The rest of this article contains major spoilers from Deadpool & Wolverine.
Marvel Veteran Breaks Silence on Shock Deadpool Cameo
Oh captain, my captain Human Torch.
Deadpool & Wolverine features the shock appearance of veteran Marvel actor Chris Evans reprising his role as Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Evans is most known for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which he last appeared in in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. He has long emphasized that he does not want to rattle that legacy but had teased before that he would be more open to revisiting his Fantastic Four role.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Evans revealed that joining Deadpool & Wolverine was as simple as responding to a text from star Ryan Reynolds.
“I was so excited,” Evans said. “Ryan’s a buddy. He just shot me a text saying, ‘Listen, might be a long shot, but would you have any interest in reprising something from 20 years ago?’ I said, ‘Oh my God! Of course.’
“Honestly, Ryan might be the only guy that I would’ve done it for because he’s just got the Midas touch,” Evans continued. “His self-awareness makes him almost invincible. He makes the joke before the audience gets a chance to make the joke, so if you’re going to revisit a character and you have to find a way to make it work, Ryan’s humor makes just about everything work, so you feel an automatic sense of safety.”
Evans’s Human Torch first appears in The Void to advise Deadpool and Wolverine about the TVA’s wasteland’s hierarchy of power. He is confronted by Aaron Stanford’s Pyro, also a flame-based character, which leads to a brief fight. He accompanies Deadpool and Wolverine to Cassandra Nova’s (Emma Corrin) lair and is killed by her minutes later. His final scene comes in the post-credits, which features an extended cut of his, Deadpool and Wolverine’s journey to Cassandra’s HQ.
“I just had to fly in real quick, do a couple days of filming, and fly out,” Evans added. “For me, it was pretty easy.”
The Human Torch suit Evans dons this time around is a bit different from his Fantastic Four get up from nearly 20 years ago. The “4” logo is centered up rather than being on his breastplate, and the overall costume is tattered and lacking color.
“Primarily because where we find Johnny, he’s meant to be a little more rundown, so the costume didn’t have to be pristine,” Evans explained. “Those first two movies, that’s when Marvel was really still trying to find their footing. So everything had to be very precise and had a lot of meetings, a lot of opinions. This was a little more like, ‘Yeah, we know it. We’ve seen it.’”
Barring a surprise resurrection from Avengers: Secret Wars, this is likely the last time that Evans will play Johnny Storm. Marvel Studios is releasing The Fantastic Four next year, the third crack at the ensemble in theatrical live-action, and Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn is set to flame on as the Human Torch.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now in theaters.
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