'Deadpool 2' Director Explains How That Shocking Celebrity Cameo Happened
An A-list actor make a very, very brief but memorable appearance.
Some unexpected faces pop up in Deadpool 2, but there’s one cameo that’s especially shocking. The cameo — an appearance by an A-list actor — is brief but electrifying. David Leitch, the director behind Deadpool 2 revealed to Inverse how the Merc With a Mouth was able to nab such a big star for such a quick but memorable role.
This post contains huge spoilers for one of Deadpool 2’s best jokes, so be warned.
When Deadpool is recruiting the X-Force, he enlists a member of the team that we didn’t see much of in any of the trailers despite the marketing’s heavy focus on the X-Force. It’s Vanisher, a character who possesses transportation powers in the comics, but in the movie is just straight-up invisible. Like, invisible to the point where at first you’re not even sure if there’s a real character or if Deadpool is just talking to empty air. Deadpool isn’t quite sure either.
When the X-Force leaps from the back of a helicopter to skydive down to the ground in a later scene, Vanisher is there too, but all we can see is his parachute. That is, until all of the new members of the much-hyped team get into fatal accidents while trying to land. Vanisher hits some power lines, and as he’s electrocuted he briefly becomes visible: He’s Brad Pitt.
Brad Pitt, when he's not fried to death.
The cameo is Pitt’s first live-action superhero role (he voiced a hero in Megamind), and director David Leitch said it was pretty easy to get Pitt to show up to film a death scene in Deadpool 2. Leitch, who was a stunt double for Pitt in Oceans 11 and Fight Club, is actually friends with Pitt, he explained to Inverse.
That friendship was only part of why Pitt agreed to do the cameo. “I think it was a love of Deadpool and sort of what that sort of global phenomenon that it was,” Leitch said. “And, his kids loved it.”
“When we reached out to him to be involved in the movie in some way, I think he was pretty excited to find someplace where he could help,” he continued. “When we landed on the Vanisher cameo, it seemed perfect for everybody.”
Leitch said it only took “about four or five minutes” to shoot the cameo, which was filmed in front of a green screen at Fox’s studios.
Now that we know that Pitt plays Vanisher, it would be pretty easy to bring the character back for future X-Force movies. Pitt wouldn’t even need to do anything to play the invisible character, assuming he avoids power lines.
Deadpool 2 is now in theaters.
