Deadpool Co-Creator Confirms That Brad Pitt Almost Played A Major Marvel Mutant
While it seems as if every single actor under the sun has managed to make their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are still some major absences in the franchise's star-studded roster. To wit, Brad Pitt has long been a name bandied about in fan casting circles, but outside of his comedic cameo as Vanisher in "Deadpool 2" (aka the best superhero movie of 2018), which famously sees him immediately die after paragliding into some overhead power lines, he hasn't been in any live-action superhero films in a substantive role.
According to Rob Liefeld, that nearly wasn't the case. Speaking to ComicBook, the Deadpool co-creator explained that Pitt had been considered for the role of Cable in "Deadpool 2" before it ultimately went to Josh Brolin. "What people don't know is, that was early, early, early, early, early on," he said. "So when they knew they weren't going in that direction, they went down several others." In the end, a scheduling conflict kept the actor from portraying Cable, but director David Leitch was so determined to get Pitt in the movie that he cooked up a fun and fast cameo.
David Leitch was determined to add Pitt to Deadpool 2's roster
David Leitch and Brad Pitt have a history that goes back years; prior to becoming a director, Leitch was a stunt coordinator and stunt double who worked on Pitt movies such as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Ocean's Eleven." He had Pitt in mind for Cable, but when the actor turned him down due to his schedule, he brainstormed a way to have him pop up in his film anyway.
"We left the door open and asked him, 'If there's something else down the line, would you take the call?' He said yes. So we came up with this [Vanisher] idea," Leitch explained to Vanity Fair at the New York premiere of "Deadpool 2."
Leitch had nothing but praise for Pitt, whom he said was willing to have fun with the innate silliness of his cameo appearance. "He came out to play and was up for anything," he confirmed. The end result was a very memorable cameo that Marvel fans still chuckle about to this day.