Deadpool & Wolverine Trailer Reveals the Return of More X-Men Movie Villains

The Deadpool & Wolverine trailer is out and it has revealed that even more classic X-Men movie villains will be showing up in this new Marvel Cinematic Universe installment. 

One of the biggest Deadpool & Wolverine trailer Easter eggs is the set piece of a wasteland fortress that is made out of the giant-sized corpse of Scott Lang/Ant-Man. The shot of the entrance also features former X-Men movie villains Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), and Azazel (Jason Flemyng). 

Kelly Hu’s Deathstrike appeared in X2: X-Men United (2003), as the lieutenant to Brian Cox’s William Stryker. Like all of Stryker’s mutant agents, Deathstrike (aka Yuriko Oyama) was controlled via a chemical compound derived from Stryker’s mutant son/test subject, Jason. Deathstrike’s razor-bladed fingernails and healing factor made her the ideal candidate to go through the Adamantium bonding process, which transformed her into Wolveriene’s successor in the Weapon X program. X2 ended with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) killing Deathstrike by pumping her veins full of liquid adamantium. 

Jason Flemyng’s Azazel appeared in X-Men: First Class (2011). He was a devilish, teleporting assassin who worked for Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). Shaw’s group, the Hellfire Club Inner Circle, nearly caused WWIII, and was responsible for the event known as the “Cuban Missle Crisis.” After Shaw died, Azazel went into hiding; in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mystique uncovers the horrible truth that Azazel was one of several mutants captured, experimented on, and ultimately killed by Sentinel inventor Bolivar Trask. 

In the world of Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s clear that both Deathstrike and Azazel have variants that were pruned from the timeline – or maybe, this is just were those dead X-Men movie villains ended up. 

Deadpool & Wolverine SPOILERS have been leaking ever since the film started shooting, so certain character returns were already revealed. Aaron Stanford’s Pyro was someone we saw on set early on – and he was in the company of some other iconic villains (and actors) from the original X-Men (2000) movie. Currently, that’s five villains from the old X-Men movies we know are showing up in Deadpool & Wolverine – plus the Deadpool movies’ supporting cast – and that’s just from the limited amount we’ve seen. It’s clear that the film will be throwing an avalanche of cameo appearances at us – and slowly but surely we’re seeing just how much of a milestone this will be for the X-Men Movie Universe. 

Deadpool & Wolverine has a theatrical release date of July 26th.