For as long as people have known that a Deadpool & Wolverine movie was being made, there have been rumors that Taylor Swift was going to be in it. But the film’s director says he has no idea where that came from, because she was never, at any point, considered for the film.

The most prevalent rumor was that Taylor would play the X-Men-adjacent character Dazzler, a mutant who happens to be a pop singer. But she didn’t, and director Shawn Levy tells Variety, “That was one of the loudest rumors that came out of nowhere. It was never true.”

“Thank you, internet, for building such a smokescreen of rumors and half-truths so that no one ever knew what was going to happen,” he added.

So how did that rumor get so out of control? YouTuber Erik Voss claims it started back in 2015, when Taylor was seen with some of the cast members of a superhero movie that was filming at the time, X-Men: Apocalypse. That led to rumors that Taylor would appear in that movie as Dazzler, but she didn’t.

Around the same time, Taylor became friends with Blake Lively and started hanging out with her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. In 2016, Taylor wore Ryan’s Deadpool costume for Halloween. And in the 2018 movie Deadpool 2, Ryan wore a T-shirt featuring Taylor’s cats.

In November 2022, Ryan announced Deadpool & Wolverine from what appeared to be the same house where Taylor filmed the video for “All Too Well.” And in October 2023, Hugh Jackman and Ryan joined Taylor for a Chiefs game. So to Easter egg-obsessed Swift fans, that was all the evidence they needed — and there weren’t any flat-out denials from Levy or Ryan, either.

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