Deadpool and Wolverine continues to have a strong run at the global box office. Fans were also delighted to see a number of cameos and easter eggs in the film. In a new interview with Indiewire, co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have revealed that one major star flat out refused to do a cameo in the film, even though it is a rare occurence that anyone would decline Ryan Reynolds. It was Robert Downey Jr., and the writers revealed what led him to say no.

Spoiler alert

Paul said that they had wanted Robert to do a cameo and written a scene with him in mind. He added, “Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about the Doctor Doom. And there’s no way he was going to do both. And then we said, “Oh, Downey doesn’t say ‘no’ to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds.” And Ryan gave him the hard press. We wrote scenes, and Downey read the scenes, but what we didn’t know behind the scenes was this Doctor Doom thing.”

More details

Rhett added, “It was a version of what you saw in the sense that he rejected Wade. He just said he wasn’t a team player or whatever and questioned his team-player abilities. So it was actually pretty close to the scene that you saw. It just had two guys instead of one. And then Jon [Favreau] was, graciously, connected to it from the start. It worked out great. I mean, look, we would’ve loved to have Downey. But, at the same time, I think Marvel had this ace in their hole, which is he’s about to come back in this different character. So, to have him be Tony Stark? Knowing that Doctor Doom was coming on the heels of that? It just didn’t make sense.”

Last month, Robert Downey Jr announced his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the supervillain Doctor Doom. His casting was announced during San Diego’s Comic-Con by MCU President Kevin Feige.

Read also: Daredevil: Born Again season 2 confirmed! Charlie Cox and team return even before the release of season 1 - Details inside