Nathan Fillion tried for multiple Deadpool roles before landing Headpool (exclusive)

The "Superman" star recalls the time he voiced a floating zombie head in "Deadpool & Wolverine" — and the other roles that didn't happen.

The star of Firefly, Castle, and The Rookie played an alien inmate at the Kyln, a high-security space prison, in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). He then played fictional actor Simon Williams, the alter-ego of comic book hero Wonder Man, in a deleted scene for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017); Master Karja, head of security at the Orgoscope biotech company, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023); and lastly Headpool, an alternate-reality version of Deadpool that exists as a floating zombie head, in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).

That number could've been even higher. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly about his new role in DC Studios' Superman (in theaters now), Fillion talks about the other Marvel roles he tried to make happen in previous Deadpool movies.

"I was actually in the first Deadpool," Fillion says. "My scene got cut out." Fans can still find what remains of that character in the bonus features of the home release for that 2016 R-rated action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds. He played the towel guy at the strip club where Morena Baccarin's Vanessa worked.

"You'll have to remember I was filming Castle at the time," he recalls. "It had to be a very small part, and I requested that I be unrecognizable. It's in a deleted scenes thing. I think you can get it if you buy the movie digitally."

According to Fillion, Reynolds, also a writer and producer on the Deadpool films, kept trying to get him into the sequels over the years. "He asked me to come in and audition for something in the second Deadpool, which was very generous of him," Fillion says of the Free Guy and Red Notice actor. "We're still in touch. He's a very generous man, and he's very interested in sharing the wealth, honestly. He's got so many incredible opportunities, and he likes to remember his friends and spread those opportunities around."

When Deadpool & Wolverine came about, Reynolds remembered his efforts to get Fillion into the mix. "Ryan would text me and say, 'Hey, would you do me a favor?' Like I'm doing him a favor," Fillion continues. "We recorded a bunch of different stuff. We started at one character, then we moved over to being Headpool, and then we were futzing the jokes."

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Headpool arrives as one of many Deadpool variants, all members of the Deadpool Corps. They emerge out of a sling-ring portal and engage the main Merc with the Mouth (Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in an epic battle sequence.

Fillion recorded his Headpool material at home with a setup he created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We did a lot of stuff that never made it to the movie, but then there came a day where they asked me to go down the street and record it in an official recording booth," Fillion says. "Shawn Levy, the director, called me just before I was about to leave the house and he said, 'We're all listening to your recordings that you sent us, and we don't really see any reason to rerecord these.' I considered it a real compliment that my recording booth was movie quality."