Deadpool & Wolverine took the Marvel cameo to the next level. As Deadpool wandered through the Void with Logan, he encountered a slew of characters from the MCU’s multiverse, including Blade, Elektra, Gambit, and Johnny Storm.
All these appearances amplified the movie’s nostalgia levels, but a recent quote from Ryan Reynolds revealed that it almost crammed yet another cameo into its runtime, and newly released concept art has given us a glimpse of what that would have looked like.
While Deadpool & Wolverine managed to tempt Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Evans into reprising their Fox-verse Marvel roles, Nicolas Cage could have joined them. In a conversation with Collider, Reynolds was asked if Cage was approached about reprising his role as Ghost Rider, 17 years after the original Ghost Rider movie. “Yes,” Reynolds said. “Came to a conversation for sure. Yeah, but no.”
That conversation led to some early stages of planning. Marvel Visual Development Supervisor Rodney Fuentebella posted concept art on Instagram featuring a massive clash between the Deadpool Corps and our intrepid heroes, including Blade, Elektra, and Human Torch. Included in the fray appear to be both Cage’s Ghost Rider and what looks to be Ben Affleck’s Daredevil.
Ghost Rider and Daredevil are two of Marvel’s darker (and more derided) movies, so including them in such an irreverent movie would have been tonally tricky. It wouldn’t have been an insurmountable feat, but seeing how the two moody heroes would clash with Deadpool’s signature snark would definitely have been interesting.
Instead, fans can only speculate as to why these particular cameos fell through. Cage already made a superhero movie cameo in The Flash, and that multiversal moment wasn’t terribly well regarded, so perhaps he was put off of the concept. Or maybe, given all the delays Deadpool & Wolverine faced, it was simply a scheduling problem.
Regardless, the fact that there was a conversation about Ghost Rider’s potential inclusion proves that even the shadowiest moments of Marvel’s cinematic history haven’t been forgotten. Maybe Cage, or at least his character, will still ride again someday.
