Deadpool is back for a second outing – and as with the ultra-referential first film, this new superhero romp is packed with silly jokes and cameos. Here are the best Easter Eggs and cameos to look out for in Deadpool 2. Mild spoilers follow.
1. Brad Pitt
At one point, Pitt was in contention for the role of this film’s villain, Cable, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Then, he was offered this cameo, as Vanisher.
In the film, Deadpool gets together a group of heroes called the X-Force. One of them is called Vanisher – a mutant who can turn invisible. You only see him when he lands on a telephone wire and gets electrocuted – at which point he becomes visible as Brad Pitt for barely a second.
Look out for the other members of X-Force, too: Terry Crews, Lewis Tan and Bill Skarsgård.
2. The MCU: Thanos, Hawkeye and more
Among the nods to the MCU in this film is a joke aimed at Cable (Josh Brolin) – whom Deadpool calls ‘Thanos’. This is riffing on the fact that Brolin plays both Marvel villains.
Deadpool also jokes when he can’t use his superpowers that he’s like “Hawkeye without the bow and arrow”; he also christens Dopinder “Brown Panther” and Domino “black Black Widow”, because of course he does.
3. Professor X’s wheelchair
Wade gets in Professor X’s wheelchair and wheels around the mansion.
Who wore it better ? Deadpool or Professor X ? @VancityReynolds #Deadpool2 pic.twitter.com/Mn1nSYN2Rg
— Damien O'Brien (@DamienMagician) March 23, 2018
4. The Goonies
Another insult hurled at Josh Brolin’s Cable: Deadpool calls him One-Eyed Willy, a reference to the legendary pirate from The Goonies, in which Brolin also starred.
5. Flashdance
The Bond-style credits sequence at the start of the film give a nod to the iconic pose in 1983 romantic drama Flashdance, only with a shower of bullets instead of rain.
Deadpool y Flashdance un solo ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Oq4iNC9GNk
— MarvelFlix (@MarvelFlix) February 6, 2018
6. Wolverine (and other X-Men)
After the credits, we see Deadpool using Cable’s time-travel device to travel back in time all the way back to 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Here he kills Ryan Reynolds’ first crack at a pre-Deadpool Wade Wilson, saying he’s “trying to clean up the timelines”. Jackson’s likeness from the 2009 film is in the clip, to avoid meddling with his character’s death scene in 2017’s Logan.
We see plenty of other X-Men in this film, too, but Deadpool doesn’t. While he’s going around the mansion – a mansion he thinks is completely empty save him, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead – we see that the X-Men are actually just hiding from him; among the big names in this funny scene are Nicholas Hoult’s Beast, James McAvoy’s Professor X, Evan Peters’ Quicksilver and Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops.
7. Say Anything…
Referencing the Say Anything… scene where John Cusack holds up a boombox to woo Ione Skye, Deadpool does the same with a grumpy Colossus using a comically miniature boombox.
#Deadpool gives us his best John Cusack impersonation from Say Anything(1989) with In Your Eyes Song by Peter Gabriel (1986) f@cking great can't wait for this #movie I'm going to watch the #trailer DP2 again pic.twitter.com/Ws7H8oArRi
— Can'tSleepWon'tSleep (@CSWSpodcast) April 30, 2018
8. Surge
Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s girlfriend, Yukio, appears to be an adaptation of an X-Men character called Surge, due to her similarly colourful hair and electrical powers. Some fans aren’t sure, though, because the comic Surge’s name is Noriko Ashida – not Yukio, who’s an entirely different Marvel character.
New #Deadpool still featuring Negasonic & we’re going with Surge, guess we’ll get the name drop #XForce. pic.twitter.com/CvjGWtWn3I
— Mask & Hammer MCU (@MaskandHammer) April 29, 2018
9. Alan Tudyk
Not a big cameo, but Alan Tudyk’s always great value. The star of Rogue One and Firefly plays a redneck when Cable first travels to the present day.
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
In the same scene Alan Tudyk appears in, ‘Piña Colada’ is playing – the same tune featured heavily in the first GOTG film.
11. The cure for blindness
Deadpool featured a scene where Wade tells Blind Al that there’s a massive pack of cocaine buried under her apartment next to the cure for blindness. In Deadpool 2 we see him retrieve the cocaine, next to a bag actually marked ‘cure for blindness’.
Blind Al Officially Returning For DEADPOOL 2!https://t.co/y3YlFYvN6e pic.twitter.com/Adv0sJ8Wgg
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) April 19, 2017