Deadpool & Wolverine’s smallest cameo highlights something the film is missing

The emotional heart of Deadpool and Wolverine is depicted in a Polaroid photo carried by the Merc with a Mouth (Ryan Reynolds).

That photo shows his “whole world”: his surrogate family and friends, numbering nine. They include his estranged wife Vanessa (Morena Baccarin); his best friend Peter (Rob Delaney); his roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams); his cab driver and apprentice Dopinder (Karan Soni); recurring extra Buck (Randal Reeder); and mutants Colossus (Stefan Kapičić), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), and Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna).

The ninth member of this assemblage is… Well, that’s a minor spoiler for a little, unexplained joke in Deadpool and Wolverinebut for those who don’t want to know about the cameos: you have been warned.

(Editorial note: Small Deadpool and Wolverine (Cameo spoilers follow.)

The ninth person who makes up Wade Wilson’s entire world is Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), the cult X-Men character created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld. It’s odd to include him among Wade’s nearest and dearest for a couple of reasons: Shatterstar wasn’t particularly close to Deadpool in any of the previous films. His presence draws attention to the more important characters who are absent from the gathering. Also, he died as a joke in the middle of Deadpool2after just a few minutes of screen time.

Like so many minor heroes in the MCU, Shatterstar has a insanely complicated background: He’s a mutant who grew up in an alternate universe and arrived on Earth as an alien. Even his powers are unnecessarily complicated. But the character captured them well in his first live-action appearance in Deadpool2: “I’m basically better than you — in everything.”

In that film, Shatterstar was introduced as a member of Deadpool’s short-lived X-Force team, alongside Peter, Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), and the Vanisher (Brad Pitt). Deadpool assembled the team to protect young mutant Russell (Julian Dennison) from the time-traveling Cable (Josh Brolin), but also as a self-aware joke about how superhero films are often built to spawn franchises. In Deadpool’s words, he assembled a team that was “tough enough, morally flexible, and young enough to carry this franchise for 10 to 12 years.”

X-Force is one of the best jokes in Deadpool2even if it ends up being an extended riff on a similar joke in MacGruber. X-Force leaps into action, only for the film to instantly and graphically kill them all except Deadpool and Domino before they can even intercept Cable. The joke has aged well in retrospect, with the film teasing out an excess of fanservice just to deliver an ironic punchline. X-Force is irrelevant to the story Deadpool2 is telling, and the film’s writers — Reynolds, a frequent collaborator with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick — know this all too well.

But that’s what makes it so strange to see Deadpool and Wolverine give this dead supporting character such a prominent position in Wade Wilson’s life. Peter also died in Deadpool2but the mid-credits scene shows Deadpool using time travel to save himself. Shatterstar doesn’t get the same treatment. And Deadpool2 emphasizes Deadpool’s distaste for the hero. After the team dies in the original timeline, Deadpool tells Domino, “The good news is, I don’t think anyone’s going to miss Shatterstar. He was kind of a dick.”

On The Empire Film Podcast after the release of Deadpool2Reynolds stated that the creative intent of that sequence is for Deadpool only Saving Peter, even though he could have saved the others. Yet the continuity in these films is elastic. Deadpool and Wolverine is filled with cameos from half-forgotten or never-there characters from elsewhere in the pre-MCU Marvel cinematic universe. To nitpick over a particular background joke cameo is to miss the forest for the trees.

Still, there’s an inherent oddness to the fact that Shatterstar shows up here unnoticed, as virtually the only joke in the film that Deadpool doesn’t explain or point out to the audience. It’s also notable given how Deadpool and Wolverine completely ignores the much more important cast members of Deadpool2The ending of that film emphasized that he had built a surrogate family, including Domino, Cable and Russell — all of whom are missing without comment in Deadpool and WolverineTheir absence is palpable and the inclusion of Shatterstar draws attention to it.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that he’s gotten himself into a situation Deadpool and Wolverine as part of a larger joke that was cut. Then again, maybe his appearance functions as intended: just a low-key, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it joke. The entire film is a museum celebrating franchise history: Happy’s office is decorated with trophies from past MCU films. The Void is littered with relics from Fox’s now-defunct Marvel properties. Deadpool keeps turning to the camera, reminding us of Marvel history.

Amid all the fuss, Shatterstar stands out as an odd misfire: it could be a missed opportunity for a bigger joke, or a joke that never really delivers. Deadpool2 didn’t make particularly significant use of Shatterstar as a character, but at least used him in the service of a funny punchline about superhero franchises. In Deadpool and Wolverinehe is hardly a topic of conversation.