Of all the surprise cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine, one that was supposed to happen didn’t: screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick say Robert Downey Jr. turned the movie down.

A scene in the beginning of the movie has Ryan Reynolds‘ Wade Wilson interviewing to see if his alter ego Deadpool could join The Avengers.

To his disappointment, however, instead of meeting “the man” — aka Tony Stark aka Downey — Wade pleads his case to Jon Favreau‘s Happy Hogan, Stark’s longtime friend.

“He doesn’t do this kinda thing anymore,” Happy says. “Cameos?” Wade asks, nudging the fourth wall.

“Interviews,” Happy replies.

Reese tells IndieWire, “Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey. But he also wanted Favreau, because they’re a great combo.”

Wenick adds, “[W]e said, ‘No one says no to Ryan Reynolds,'” but ultimately, Downey did.

Fast-forward to now, and we know what Reese, Wernick and Reynolds didn’t at the time: Downey was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but as Doctor Doom, not Tony Stark.

“It just didn’t make sense” for him to play Stark before the villain, Reese says.

The scene with only Favreau and Reynolds worked well, the writers agreed, as did their co-writer Reynolds, who recently called the Iron Man director “one of the greats.”

Ryan enthused, “[W]orking with Jon — who’s one of the original creatives who built an empire — was somehow BETTER than sitting with one of my heroes.”

Wernick said they also brainstormed that ALL of the Avengers would be there to reject Wade, “and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do,” but said they never actually wrote the scene.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.