Matthew McConaughey Finally Joins The MCU With A Secret Deadpool & Wolverine Role

Warning: this article contains spoilers for the end of "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Well, Kevin Feige should be happy. "Deadpool & Wolverine" has cameoed its way to an astonishing $200 million opening weekend. In fact, the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman-starring blockbuster managed the sixth-biggest opening weekend in box office history, with a domestic total of $211 million and a worldwide total of $444.3 million.

Yes, the Merc with the Mouth has seemingly done the impossible and saved the Marvel Cinematic Universe from itself. Following a frankly bewildering cavalcade of MCU "content" over the past few years, the franchise almost managed to kill itself off. Now, Deadpool and his new buddy have at least shown there's life left in the saga yet — even if it did take a similarly bewildering series of cameos and unabashed fan service to do so.

It's no secret that "Deadpool & Wolverine" is packed with cameos. Much like "Spiderman: No Way Home," the multiversal nature of the film's storyline affords Reynolds and co. the ability to throw pretty much anyone they want into this latest offering from Marvel Studios, and whatever you think about the movie, it certainly delivered on that front. Alongside one particular cameo that should delight fans of a certain 90s-era daywalking vampire hunter, the film is crammed with appearances from former 20th Century Fox Marvel actors. They even managed to get the late great Stan Lee in "Deadpool & Wolverine," and not in any sort of morally questionable way.

Amid the onslaught of crowd-pleasing cameos, however, there is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment that finally brings the great Matthew McConaughey into the MCU fold.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" isn't just about cameos. There are Easter eggs, too! Tons of 'em. We're talking Star Trek jokes, tributes to famous "X-Men" comic book covers, and even some vicious jokes that call out the MCU for its failures. Is this all an ominous sign that the MCU has been fully subsumed by audience capture? Yes. But it's also kinda fun, I guess.

Similarly fun is the whole variant thing. Alongside the appearances from erstwhile Marvel actors, the story of "Deadpool & Wolverine" also sees a bunch of Deadpool variants entering the fray. After Kevin Feige and Disney got their hands on the copyright, you better believe they were going to make use of Marvel Comics' Deadpool Corps. — an entire team of different versions of Wade Wilson, which includes canine and child iterations of the character.

In the movie, one such example is Cowboypool, or The Deadpool Kid. This Western version of the character (or at the very least, his voice) is played by none other than Matthew McConaughey, making for yet another significant appearance in a film that is basically one long cameo-fest. Of course, we never actually see the "True Detective" star, as Cowboypool's face remains covered throughout his appearance. But there's no mistaking that voice, even if McConaughey did affect a more pronounced Old West tone for the part and did not, much to the dismay of hopefully no one, give us an, "Alright, alright, alright."

Instead of Wade Wilson's usual spandex, dual Desert Eagles, and Katanas, The Deadpool Kid uses pearl-handed six-shooters and dons an outfit made of cured leather, topped off with a ten-gallon hat. He first appeared in 2010's issue #7 of "Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth," in which Deadpool traverses the multiverse, at one point stopping in a Western dimension where he encounters his cowboy counterpart. Unfortunately, Deadpool doesn't seem all that enthused, and ends up shooting The Deadpool Kid in the head, though the character seemingly survived and cropped up in later issues, including issue #2 of "Deadpool Kills Deadpool" in 2012.

In "Deadpool & Wolverine," the character isn't given much to do outside of his fan service duties. Of all the variants in "Deadpool & Wolverine," though, this is a significant one simply due to the fact it represents Matthew McConaughey's MCU debut. The "Interstellar" star has long been mooted to appear in the blockbuster franchise, to the extent that we at /Film even wrote a list of the Marvel characters we'd like to see McConaughey play. The actor previously passed on playing Ego the Living Planet in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," and was reportedly in talks to joining the MCU as Dr. Stephen Strange, before the role eventually went to Benedict Cumberbatch.

As such, many fans have been waiting some time for the man who fronted the definitely normal "Art of Livin' Well" event to join their favorite franchise. Now that he's officially lent his talents to the saga, we'll have to wait and see whether he returns to the role of Cowboypool in a more significant fashion in future — though it honestly seems like somewhat of a waste given the character's lesser-known status.