Deadpool Had To Cut A Great X-Force Character Because He Cost Too Much

Despite Disney doing their best to assure fans that Deadpool isn’t… well, dead, the current future of the franchise is more than a little murky. Post-Fox merger, Marvel Studios are set to discard the X-Men universe that concluded with the dreadful Dark Phoenix and put their own spin on the mutant world. With Deadpool being an X-Men spinoff though, where does that leave him?

That such a beloved and profitable character is being left out in the cold is a crime, especially as the films set up sequels involving an expanded X-Force. But there was one hero they chose not to use in the movies, and creator Rob Liefeld has just revealed who and why.

“I found the early production art from Kane’s intended appearance in 2016 Deadpool. These were from Blur Studios and as I mentioned in an earlier post, Kane was cut for budgetary reasons but man it would have been amazing to see the cover of X-Force #2 come to life on screen!”

Judging from the art, I can see why Kane might have exceeded the Deadpool budget. Given that the design is essentially a cyborg body, they’d have had to completely CGI it and then composite the actor’s head on in post-production. Effects like this are pretty standard for your average MCU movie, but it should be remembered that prior to its release, Deadpool was considered very much an outside bet. It took Reynolds years of campaigning to get the film greenlit, and only then on a relatively paltry budget of $58 million (it went on to make $783 million worldwide).

If the Disney/Fox merger hadn’t gone through, we’d have probably been gearing up for the release of X-Force at the moment, which may well have featured this design. But with that project on ice, it seems that fans of Liefeld’s characters might have a very long wait to see them back on the big screen.