Ever since the merger of Disney and 20th Century Fox, Marvel fans have been anticipating the arrival of Deadpool in the MCU. The X-Men character has enjoyed his own R-rated adventures over the last few years, but Kevin Feige has confirmed that the Merc with a Mouth will indeed play a part in the MCU moving forward. And judging by concept art for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, that debut could have happened a lot sooner than we expected.
In recently released concept art from the Marvel Phase 4 action movie, it is revealed that there were plans for a brief appearance from Ryan Reynolds’ anti-hero in Xialing’s Golden Daggers Club. The concept art, from artist Andrew Kim, pits Wade Wilson against Proxima Midnight, one of the children of Thanos.
It is yet to be confirmed whether this concept art is indeed something that Marvel actually considered doing in the movie, or whether it’s simply a bit of fun artwork that the artist decided to play around with.
We did, of course, get a couple of cool cameos in Shang-Chi already. Keen-eyed audiences will have spotted Doctor Strange’s buddy Wong taking on Hulk’s nemesis Abomination in the same fighting arena we see in the concept art.
With recent Marvel adventures such as the WandaVision and Loki TV series, plus Spider-Man: No Way Home, all leading to multiversal chaos, many fans had speculated that these would be perfect opportunities for Deadpool to crossover into the Marvel machine.
Now, the rumours are that Deadpool will be one of the many potential cameos to show up in the upcoming time travel movie Doctor Strange 2, but while the character’s creator has fuelled this fire, Ryan Reynolds himself has denied any truth to a cameo.
Instead, the focus has entirely been on the development of Deadpool 3, with the sequel moving ahead and updates just around the corner apparently. However, Marvel fans are expecting an appearance before then. Will they get what they want? Only time will tell.