Deadpool & Wolverine: Aaron Stanford Shares Mixed Feelings on Pyro's Evolution Across X-Men Movies

Check out the Phase Zero YouTube channel for the full interview with Aaron Stanford!

By Aaron Perine

Pyro actor Aaron Stanford addressed his character's narrative arc through the X-Men trilogy. ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast addressed his appearances after X2: X-Men United. Remember that Pyro popped up again before Deadpool & Wolverine. It seems like Stanford really enjoyed that character development in X2. But, When he came back for X-Men: The Last Stand,  a lot of the progress that had been made was washed away. It's clearly stuck with this actor for a while now. This MCU appearance allowed him to appraise Pyro's journey again with a fresh set of eyes.

"I do think, like Pyro through all these movies, they're all very different right? so, the portrait that was drawn and X2, in my opinion, is the most interesting, the most complicated and complete picture," Stanford began. "They really took a lot of pains to sort of interweave these little moments of him. Him at Bobby's house, staring at a picture of someone else's happy family. And, there's complicated emotions happening there."

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(Photo:

Pyro in X-Men: The Last Stand.

- Marvel)

"So that hints at a backstory to Pyro. What happened to his family? What is the deal here? And then, the moment between him and Magneto. For the very first time, this person is making him feel good about himself," the Pryo actor observed. "You're not a freak, you're not an outcast, you're a God among insects. you're special. So there was all that kind of stuff going on and quite honestly, in the next X-Men movie that stuff just kind of vanished. It really wasn't there."

"It became a more simplified portrait and he was just kind of a bad guy. He was just sort of a villain and he was ready to get it done and ready to kill Professor X," Stanford clarified. "So, it became a very different portrait and then obviously in Deadpool it's a completely different thing, because Deadpool is a totally different universe. So I really had to be much bigger, much more broad, more tuned into the fact that this is a satire of Pyro. Imagining him and what Pyro would be like after he's been ripped out of his universe and thrown into this limbo."

X-2's Most-Remembered Scene

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(Photo:

Deadpool & Wolverine's version

- Marvel)

Stanford What also told us about his iconic scene as Pyro in X-Men 2. A lot of fans have fond memories of the fire mutant in those first movies. The big action set piece outside of Bobby's parents house lives rent free in most X-Men fans' brains. When it came time for Stanford to deliver those intense lines in front of those police officers, he really had to juggle the gravity of the moment and the tone this movie was shooting for.

"No, I never thought about it in that sense. I never thought about it as being like, 'This will be in an iconic moment,'" Stanford explained. "I just tried to look, I just try to do the best job you can. And X2, it was really important for them for everything to be grounded and for everything to feel real. That's what they were looking for in this, in this comic book film. They really wanted to take a different angle on this movie and really sort of hit people where they live, you know? So, they wanted the characters to feel real. With that line, what I was looking for was a way to make it not feel like an  Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liner."

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He would continue, "I wanted it to. And,  I remember one of the writers,  Mike Doherty who wrote that line, after I said it he came up and was like, ' I love that, because you delivered the line like a kid who just found his dad's gun.'  You know? He feels the power of it. But, he's a little afraid of it too… He clearly wants to be the bad mutant that y'all heard about. But, it's a bunch of adult, grown, armed cops in front of them. He's never done anything like this before. So, it's scary, but he puts up the bravado."

Do you like Pyro's arc in these movies? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!

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