Deadpool & Wolverine nearly introduced notorious MCU villain

Deadpool & Wolverine will soon arrive on screens, bringing Cassandra Nova with it – but she almost wasn’t the first choice to be the movie’s villain.

In fact, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy nearly opted to go for one of the biggest MCU villains of all time: Mephisto.

When plotting the potential bad guys for Deadpool & Wolverine, the pair circulated through different candidates, looking to the comics for inspiration. There are plenty to choose from, but they eventually landed with the supervillain known as Cassandra Nova. Though they did “flirt” with the idea of Mephisto at the beginning.

“Oh, that’s who it was,” Levy told Collider. “Yeah, we went through a lot of ‘almost’ versions of this story before we landed on… First it was the infamous call from Hugh, but then this idea of Cassandra Nova as sibling to Charles.

“That was very quickly thereafter, because Cassandra’s link to Professor X creates an interesting dynamic and fascination in Cassandra about you [points to Jackman].”

Reynolds also added that it was the comic books themselves that inspired them to go for Nova in the new movie.

“It was the panels of Cassandra with her hands in someone’s skull, and it was so gross and cool,” he said. “And we were like, that’s our villain.”

While Cassandra Nova might have won the battle to be in the upcoming Marvel movie, Mephisto would have been an understandable choice. Appearing in the comics since 1968, he’s been around for a long time.

Designed after a demon, Mephisto became known as one of Spider-Man’s main foes. But he’s also come head-to-head with Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Doctor Doom. Most notably, he’s the reason Wolverine ended up accidentally killing his X-Men family in Wolverine #70, after Mephisto put him into a trance.

For years, many fans have been expecting him to pop up in the modern MCU one way or another.

Though, he has appeared in superhero movies before. In 2007, he was played by Peter Fonda in Ghost Rider, and again by Ciarán Hinds in Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance.

Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 25. For more trivia, check out our guides to all the Deadpool cameos we know about. You can also find out what we learned at the sneak peak event, and take a look at our suspects for Lady Deadpool.