One Deadpool & Wolverine Cameo Riffs On An Infamously Complicated Ryan Reynolds Collab

Spoilers for "Deadpool & Wolverine" follow.

As expected, "Deadpool & Wolverine" is loaded with plenty of surprising cameos. That's just how the MCU rolls these days, and while some of the cameos have been revealed in trailers (for instance: Marvel dropped a final trailer that just flat-out gave away the return of X-23 from "Logan"), a chunk of the cameos remained unspoiled. Perhaps the biggest bunch of cameos comes in the middle of the movie. During this portion of the film, Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson aka Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine are stuck in a drab, grey void. After fighting each other to exhaustion, they're brought to a secret location and introduced to a group of Marvel characters from previous films who are fighting to escape. 

The group includes Dafne Keen's Laura aka X-23, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wesley Freakin' Snipes as Blade. Snipes' return as Blade is the cameo that is probably the most surprising, for multiple reasons. For one thing, there have been plenty of rumors about cameos (for instance: Garner's return was rumored over a year ago), but Snipes was not among them. For another, Marvel has been trying (and failing) to launch a new "Blade" movie with Mahershala Ali, so bringing Snipes back in any form as the Daywalker seemed unlikely. 

But perhaps the biggest reason you might not expect Snipes to be involved with "Deadpool & Wolverine" is because rumors have long suggested that Snipes and "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds do not get along. It all stems from the first time the two worked together on the 2004 sequel "Blade: Trinity." In fact, "Deadpool & Wolverine" even has a laugh about these rumors, with Snipes' Blade saying to Deadpool, "I don't like you," and Reynolds, as Deadpool, replying, "You never did." 

In the early 2000s, Ryan Reynolds was having a moment and his star was on the rise. After leading the comedy "Van Wilder" in 2002, Reynolds became more and more in demand. Helping matters was the fact that the Canadian actor got ridiculously ripped, a detail some filmmakers exploited by finding ways for Reynolds to take his shirt off on screen and showcase those abs. By 2004, he landed a supporting role in the sequel "Blade: Trinity," playing wise-cracking vampire hunter Hannibal King. 

However, rumors abound that "Blade: Trinity" was a troubled shoot. Star Wesley Snipes allegedly had issues with the film's director, David S. Goyer. He also (again, allegedly) did not get along with Reynolds. The source for much of this comes from Patton Oswalt, who had a small role in "Blade: Trinity." While speaking with the AV Club, Oswalt detailed his experiences on the set of "Blade: Trinity," rattling off a list of the film's behind-the-scenes problems, including allegations that Snipes frequently stayed in character, often refused to leave his trailer, and even "tried to strangle" Goyer at one point. All that said, it's worth noting that Snipes denied these claims when asked about them by The Guardian. 

As for Reynolds, he previously told IGN that the stories about troubles on the "Blade: Trinity" set were "overblown." However, he did admit to going out of his way to try to make Snipes break character during certain scenes. "I don't know if I ever got him to laugh," Reynolds said. "The guy's Blade. Hopefully on the inside, he's laughing kind of on the inside, I don't know? It was a challenging process. I've never experienced anything like that." 

In any case, if there was bad blood between Snipes and Reynolds, it appears to be water under the bridge, what with Snipes popping-up in "Deadpool & Wolverine." Now whether or not Marvel ever gets their Snipes-less "Blade" reboot off the ground is another question.