Marvel and Stranger Things may be distinctly different franchises, but they share a surprising connection, at least in terms of Deadpool & Wolverine. According to director Shawn Levy, the superheroes featured in the Marvel film were tied to Stranger Things characters in the script, at least in terms of names. As the film featured several cameos from big-name actors, to maintain secrecy (and avoid spoilerse) they had to keep those names hidden, even in the script. Instead of Elektra, Blade, Johnny Storm, and Henry Cavill’s Wolverine variant, for example, the characters were referred to as Eleven, Billy, Jonathan, and Hopper, respectively and for Levy, who serves as an executive producer on Stranger Things, it was a collision of worlds.
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“True. For a brief while, my worlds collided,” Levy wrote on X.
Maintaining secrecy around those cameos was something that even Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds was concerned with. In a previous interview, Reynolds admitted that he was worried something would go wrong, especially once the script was completed and filming began.
“I was so f–king scared that people would see [Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, Jennifer Garner, and Dafne Keen]. Genuinely, it kept me up at night,” he said at the time.
He also revealed that they went to great lengths to avoid even drone shots, managing to cordon off the entire shooting area.
“If anyone saw a drone, we would yell it out and basically everyone runs for cover,” he added. “We never had to actually deploy that little tactic, but I lived in fear of this coming out.”
[RELATED: Deadpool & Wolverine Director Shawn Levy Details How Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds Embody Marvel Heroes]
Given that Marvel has experienced leaks throughout the MCU, particularly in the lead up to Spider-Man: No Way Home, that Levy and Reynolds would take extra measures to prevent spoilers isn’t much of a surprise. While Deadpool & Wolverine was a tremendous success in 2024, a key component for fans was that most of the major cameos remained a secret until audiences sat down in the theater.
There Was A Plan For A “Bad Fake Movie” To Keep Deadpool & Wolverine Under Wraps
It also turns out that the name swaps in the script weren’t the only measures taken to keep cameos under wraps. During an appearance on Hot Ones, Reynolds even revealed that there was an idea for a movie called “Alpha Cop”, which would feature “two guys that were sharing one brain and together they made the perfect cop.” According to him, posters for the film had already been created to help conceal the real project and stir up plenty of buzz in the process.
“It was meant to be kind of horrible. Like 10 people in America would go to see this movie on opening weekend and five minutes into the movie, the Marvel logo would flip up and it would actually be Deadpool & Wolverine,” Reynolds said.
Ultimately, the efforts to keep things under wraps worked. Deadpool & Wolverine surpassed the box office numbers of both Deadpool films, as well as the critically acclaimed Logan.
Deadpool & Wolverine is available for streaming on Disney+.