After seeing the newest casting for ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool, I’m even more curious about how the MCU will handle ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool going forward, and whether the actor will remain in the role permanently now his version of the character has been added into the Marvel movie worlds’ multiverse. Despite first appearing as a decidedly less popular version of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool in X-Men Wolverine: Origins, Ryan Reynolds went on to play a more comic-accurate version of the character throughout ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool’s own movie trilogy, which came to define the antihero in a major way.

A mixture of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s $1.3 billion box office and the film’s story welcoming Wade Wilson and his universe in as part of the MCU multiverse makes Ryan Reynolds’ future in the role seem like one that will continue on for some time. However – much like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, since he appeared as a new variant of the hero here – questions have remained about whether the MCU timeline will capitalize on the film’s popularity by keeping the actor in the role despite showing them to not be the main universe’s version of the character. Thanks to a new ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool casting, these questions seem even more pertinent to me now.

Neil Patrick Harris Playing The Newest ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool Raises Questions About Whether Other Actors May Take On The Live-Action Role In The MCU

While Ryan Reynolds is the actor most prominently ᴀssociated with the role of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool thanks to the over 15 years he’s played the role – and the billions of dollars that the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool movie trilogy has made over the years – he isn’t the only person to have played the role, and this has most recently been underlined by the newest actor to take on performing as the Merc With A Mouth. This is namely via Neil Pattrick Harris voicing Wade Wilson in the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool VR game, which is set to release this year, with the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool VR trailer demonstrating a little of what Harris’ take on the antihero will be like.

Though other actors have voiced ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool in the world of games, the release of this trailer raised conversations about the idea of other people playing the character in the wider world, since it comes so soon after the success of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine sH๏τ the movie character even further into the pop culture consciousness. With questions already existing about how the MCU will handle having recently folded in Reynolds’ ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool into the MCU multiverse – and whether the main MCU universe will have its own ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool or not – this certainly reignites the conversation, especially after Reynolds’ own response to the new casting.

Ryan Reynolds’ Jokes About Neil Patrick Harris’ Casting Reference Why The MCU May Choose To Not Have Another Actor Take On The Role

The ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool VR teaser trailer was followed up by a post from Ryan Reynolds’ own Youtube account тιтled Ryan Over-Reacts to Marvel’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool VR, which has already gained 897k views in the span of 4 days. In the video response to the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool VR trailer, Ryan Reynolds joked about the idea that Harris had “stolen” his “signature role“, playing on this idea by briefly comprising his own version of Doogie Howser – a role Neil Patrick Harris is famous for playing.

While this is clearly intended in jest – and likely a way to try and promote the upcoming game before its release – it does highlight the reality of the situation, as Ryan Reynolds is now more ᴀssociated with the Marvel character more than ever, and thus the decision to cast other people does tend to appear more notable. With Reynolds and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool now being inextricable to many viewers, the landscape for the character has changed, and this presents an interesting scenario in terms of what this could mean for Marvel’s wider on-screen franchise.

The idea is one reflected in many of the comments from this video, with people expressing a wish to see Reynolds in this role, or otherwise expressing surprise that a new actor is taking on the role. While Reynolds doesn’t have a total monopoly on the character in all media formats – as evidenced by the fact that Nolan North has remained the main voice of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool in the games sphere – this certainly highlights why it could be complicated for the MCU to even consider bringing in a new face as ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool, even if just to give the franchise’s home universe its own version of the antihero.

Avengers: Secret Wars Will Likely Explain What The MCU’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool Plan Really Is

While the way in which the MCU will handle ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool and his recent addition into the wider MCU isn’t yet clear even as it remains a talking point for the franchise, it does seem like there’s an impending point in the MCU’s overarching story that should provide some answers. Avengers: Secret Wars certainly already looks like it has a lot of story avenues it will need to wrap up or provide some satisfying answers about, but the trajectory its story will take should inform us of a fair amount about this matter whether the MCU actively wants to or not.

Avengers: Secrets Wars is naturally a huge chapter of the MCU’s run, both in that it finishes up the Multiverse Saga, and in that it offers the franchise its best chance to make major changes like having the X-Men be a part of the main universe, be that through a reboot of sorts or by simply drastically changing Earth-616’s world. With the 2015 Secret Wars comic actively resulting in the collapse of the Marvel multiverse as we previously knew it – and the start of a new age of sorts – it’s likely the MCU will take some pages out of its book when it comes to bringing in a grand new future for the franchise.

As such, this offers seemingly the best chance to see what the MCU’s game plan is when it comes to Ryan Reynolds’ ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool, as it’s likely this will lead into this version of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool either becoming a part of the main universe, remaining a part of the main story somehow from his own universe, or actively being replaced – which, while seemingly unlikely, isn’t impossible, especially given the lingering mystery of why Thor was crying over ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool on one of the TVA screens in ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine. Whatever the case, I’m fascinated to see what the future holds for ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool and the Marvel’s other mutant characters in the MCU.