Black Tom’s Deadpool 2 Role Downsized Due To Concerns Over Budget

From Domino to Cable to Julian Dennison’s Firefist, it’s no secret that Deadpool 2 upped its star power quite considerably, and nowhere is this more apparent than [redacted]’s surprise cameo.

The David Leitch sequel is currently playing across theaters worldwide – and doing gangbusters, we might add – and as part of Empire’s spoiler-filled special, lead star Ryan Reynolds has weighed in on the addition of Black Tom Cassidy, whose role was a lot smaller than initially expected.

Turns out the Powers That Be over at 20th Century Fox had something to do with downsizing Jack Kesy’s screen time, as Reynolds admits that his original role would have meant Deadpool 2 running over budget.

“Black Tom was just in the movie as a supervillain who has incredible powers and all sorts of stuff. It was the f*cking studio that said ‘You guys are over budget, you can’t afford this. So his whole storyline got trimmed way back and Jack Kesy, who played him, is such a sport and stayed on in the role.”

Alas, the cult character known as Black Tom was ultimately reduced to a running gag for the Merc With a Mouth, who spent much of the movie attempting to protect Firefist from the marauding Cable.

For Ryan Reynolds, though, Deadpool 2 involved pulling double duty, as the actor also voiced Juggernaut, the hulking X-Men character last seen during The Last Stand.

“As with every movie you want to finish on budget and on time, which we did, but barely – so we couldn’t even afford a voice for Juggernaut. The voice for Juggernaut is me. I just did it as a kind of temp, it was this sort of Brooklyn brawler voice that we modulated in post, and cranked up and gave it all this bass and reverberation. We didn’t settle on that just because it was quality, we settled on that because we just didn’t have any more budget left for other actors to jump in.”

All of this (and more!) is addressed during Empire’s deep dive, and if it’s more Deadpool 2 coverage you’re after, look no further than our play-by-play breakdown of the sequel’s many Easter eggs, including the other Logan one that everyone missed.