The A-list cameo everyone is missing in 'Deadpool 2' (SPOILERS)
Warning: Major Deadpool 2 spoilers ahead!
The Ocean’s Eleven presence is strong in Deadpool 2.
Brad Pitt’s blink-and-miss cameo as X-Force recruit the Vanisher has already been out in the ether in the weeks leading up to the film’s release, but Team Deadpool managed to do the unthinkable in an era of spoiler posters and Easter egg listicles: They slid another A-list Ocean’s actor into the movie, and no one who’s seen it has seemed to notice.
Along with Alan Tudyk (whose cameo was outed by the simple fact that he’s listed on IMDb), Matt Damon appears in the film as one of the rednecks engaging in a “toilet paper manifesto” when Josh Brolin’s time-traveling Cable turns up to steal their truck.
“He’s not hidden like Waldo for just an instant; he gets some good screen time,” said Rhett Reese, who stopped by Yahoo Studios with his co-writer, Paul Wernick.
Damon is actually listed in the credits as Dickie Greenleaf (his character’s name in The Talented Mr. Ripley) — which was spotted by film journalist Russ Fischer earlier this week, the only public acknowledgment of Damon’s possible involvement.
It’s the second major cameo in a Marvel movie for Damon in a year: He also briefly appeared as a thespian portraying Loki in November’s Thor: Ragnarok.
According to director David Leitch, star/producer/co-writer Reynolds pitched the Deadpool 2 part to Damon over dinner. And Damon’s part was so closely guarded that Leitch and company didn’t even tell the crew who they were filming.
“They spent a lot of time in the makeup chair,” he said of Damon and Tudyk. “Matt, in particular. Bill Corso, our makeup artist, had three hours with him to put him in deep prosthetics and give him that beer belly.”
The cameo coup has become a source of pride for Reese and Wernick. “We’ve sneaked him past everybody,” Reese said. “Literally thousands and thousands of people have seen the movie so far, and no one’s noticed.”
Deadpool 2 is now playing.
Watch Leitch, Wernick, and Reese talk about the decision to give Negasonic Teenage Warhead a girlfriend:
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