If Any X-Men Stars Cameo In Deadpool 3, It Should Be James Marsden
We’ve got our eye on a potential twist.
As a Marvel movie, Deadpool & Wolverine is inherently predisposed to cameos. That expectation is bolstered by the fact that Marvel is in the thick of its Multiverse Saga, meaning that no character, property, or franchise is off-limits. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) seems to be gearing up to “save” the multiverse from itself, and he’s uniquely qualified to do so. When we last saw the merc in Deadpool 2, he was already working to fix the most egregious aspects of his saga, including the demise of his partner Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and his infamous duel with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in X-Men Origins. The duo will get a rematch in Deadpool & Wolverine, but it’s safe to say they won’t be the only X-Men appearing in the film.
The Marvel braintrust has been tight-lipped about Deadpool & Wolverine’s crossover potential. While we know about Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Emma Corrin’s unknown villain, there’s no official word on who else could pop up. That’s given X-Men fans a lot of time to speculate, with a new interview from James Marsden — who played Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, in Fox’s X-Men films — fueling the latest discussion.
Marsden recently sat down with The Playlist to discuss his upcoming film Knox Goes Away, but the conversation turned to another project he recently completed: the latest Sonic the Hedgehog film.
“We just wrapped,” the actor said of Sonic 3. “We were near the Deadpool stages, actually.”
Cyclops never really got his due in the X-Men films, but a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine could set things right.
Marsden was quick to steer the conversation away from Deadpool and Marvel, citing that topic as a “bit of a Pandora’s box,” but he didn’t have to mention Deadpool 3 at all. The actor has been fielding questions about a potential return to the X-Men franchise for years; after briefly reprising his role as Cyclops in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the demand grew more fervent. Back in 2023, he expressed some interest in returning again, but explained that it would all ultimately boil down to the quality of the project.
“That family, I miss it dearly,” Marsden told TheWrap. “We created a very special thing in the first couple of X-Men movies and yeah, I’d love to explore that. But I’d want to see what that looks like first.”
Marsden might not be appearing, but he wouldn’t be the first Marvel actor to play coy about a cameo. There’s no telling if he’s actually set to appear in a future Marvel movie, whether it’s Deadpool & Wolverine or something else entirely. But if he were keeping a secret about his role in the upcoming film, a Cyclops cameo would be pretty big.
Is there room in Deadpool & Wolverine for the X-Men reunion fans have been waiting for?
Deadpool 3, again, has tremendous potential. Anyone from Marvel’s cinematic universe could appear, possibly as different iterations of an iconic character. Just as Sir Patrick Stewart played a variant of Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, other Marvel alums could deliver a fun spin on a familiar role. Jackman is potentially playing multiple variants of Wolverine, and the same might be true of other actors popping in for the film. Why not Marsden too?
Cyclops played a major role in Fox’s X-Men films, but he didn’t get much of a chance to shine. Marsden’s performance could be stiff, and the storylines often kept him on the sidelines. Cyclops also never truly got the chance to lead the X-Men as he does in the comics, since he was knocked off pretty early on in X-Men: The Last Stand.
One cameo can’t fix a 20-year-old problem, but it’d still be nice to see the talented Marsden get another chance to dive into such a complex character. It doesn’t have to be in Deadpool & Wolverine — Secret Wars is just around the corner, after all — but the Multiverse Saga has a huge opportunity to right the wrongs of past films. If Marsden’s really interested, we could finally see his character at his potential.
