The former DC actor knew his Deadpool & Wolverine cameo “would be subversive and playful.”
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Cavillrine?! It’s been less than two years since Henry Cavill’s Superman appeared (for the last time) as an end-credits cameo opposite Dwayne Johnson in the 2022 DC movie Black Adam. The scene, which was accompanied by Cavill officially announcing “I am back as Superman” on social media, teased a future super-powered showdown between the Man of Steel and the Man in Black. But then DC Films became DC Studios, the DC Extended Universe ended, and the rebooted DC Universe cast David Corenswet as its new Superman.
So it’s fitting that Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, which resurrects heroes from abandoned franchises, sees the former Superman actor switch from the DCEU to the MCU. Early in the film, as Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson scours the multiverse for a still-living version of Hugh Jackman’s Logan to anchor his dying universe, the fourth wall-breaker comes across the cigar-chomping “Cavillrine”: a Wolverine variant he immediately recognizes as the Man of Steel and Justice League actor.
“This just feels right. We’ll treat you so much better than those s—f—s down the street,” Deadpool says in a reference to the Distinguished Competition.
“With pretty much no exceptions, every surprise casting in this movie came down to Ryan or I reaching out to the actor before lawyers and before agents [were involved],” director Shawn Levy told Variety. “It literally was us asking and invariably people saying ‘yes.'”
That includes Cavill, who is credited as “Cavillrine, which Ryan coined,” Levy said. “I knew it was undeniable as soon as Ryan came up with that term. He said ‘yes’ right away because he knew it would be subversive and playful. It was also with a lot of affection for him and his body of work, and playing with his legacy as a DC hero now that he’s appearing as a variant of a Marvel hero.”
Subversive in part because fans have campaigned to see the British actor play a different Marvel hero yet to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain Britain, the Union Jack-clad crusader of the United Kingdom.
“I’m never going to say a Marvel character that is already being played by someone else,” Cavill told The Hollywood Reporter when asked about a hypothetical Marvel role in a 2021 interview. “Because everyone’s doing such an amazing job. However, I have the internet and I have seen the various rumors about Captain Britain and that would be loads of fun to do a cool, modernized version of that — like the way they modernized Captain America.”
“There’s something fun about that,” Cavill added, “and I do love being British.” Or Canadian.
Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing only in theaters.
