If you have seen Deadpool 2, then you already know that it's basically a remarkable cornucopia of pop culture gags and superhero movie references. Everything from X-Men Origins: Wolverine to Green Lantern gets a shout out, but one of the best jokes in the movie comes in a scene that includes the cast of X-Men: Dark Phoenix in a quick shot. Most of the cast is present, except for Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner, and director David Leitch recently opened up and explained that they only used actors who were available to shoot on a specific day. Leitch said:
It might have been one of those things where we're up against it, and it's like, who's available that day by the time we had to get the shot and get it down to us... we're grateful to have anyone we could get at that point.
So, David Leitch didn't have carte blanche when it came time to get the cast of the main X-Men franchise to come together and film that quick gag. Deadpool 2 only had access to the X-Men actors who were available on a specific day, and that meant they had to shoot the scene without Sophie Turner, which makes total sense.
With all of that said, we should note that the number of actors who do appear in the Deadpool 2/X-Men: Dark Phoenix crossover is actually pretty impressive. Franchise mainstays like James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Evan Peters are present, along with some X-Men: Apocalypse newcomers like Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee. Even without Sophie Turner present among the ensemble, that's still pretty cool!
Take a look at a shot from the awesome cameo, below, to see what it looked like in the final cut of the film!
If fact, it's kind of a miracle the scene came together at all. It was only after the set supervisor came up with a relatively simple way to make the shot work in multiple locations that it came together. David Leitch continued in his interview with Den of Geek and explained how the decision to composite two shots together, rather than bring the Dark Phoenix cast to Deadpool 2's set, actually made the process relatively simple. Leitch said:
So, the set supervisor, Dan Glass, who did the Matrix films, he came up with this idea of doing a composite, and getting the plates to match. So we shot our side here, and we sent the measurements and the camera positions and things up to Simon's team on Dark Phoenix, and they shot the plate for that there. Then we put the two together. So actually it turned out to be easier than we thought. If we would have had to get all those people in the room it probably wouldn't have happened.
Deadpool 2 is now available on Digital HD, and the 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD versions of the film will hit shelves tomorrow. As for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the latest X-Men film will debut next year on February 14, 2019.
