The One Marvel Veteran Deadpool & Wolverine Couldn't Bring Back

This post contains spoilers for "Deadpool & Wolverine."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't been on the steadiest of courses since sticking an unprecedented, multi-billion-dollar landing with "Avengers: Endgame," but even when the water was at its choppiest, the studio at least knew it had a box office ace up its sleeve with "Deadpool & Wolverine." But while this was certainly a comfort, it was also a tad awkward given that Marvel Studios absorbed the franchise after Disney absorbed 20th Century Fox. If the expectation going forward was that Marvel would wipe the old Fox slate clean and start fresh with the shipwrecked X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, where the heck did Deadpool fit in the company's overall narrative arc?

Of course, Deadpool does as Deadpool likes, especially when he's got OG Wolverine Hugh Jackman in tow, which meant Marvel Studios had no choice but to acknowledge and — big gulp — weave those Fox failures into the fabric of its ultra-successful universe. The result has been a critical and commercial success (though /Film's Chris Evangelista was correctly tepid on the try-hard threequel), with characters like Elektra (Jennifer Garner) and Gambit (Channing Tatum) getting the big, affectionate send-off they were denied under Tom Rothman's tenure at Fox.

It's looking like this was the last opportunity for those Fox heroes to get their due, so for those who weren't asked back, perhaps this is a bit of a bummer. And then there's Vinnie Jones, the Premier-League-tough-guy-turned-actor who portrayed the Juggernaut in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." The door was open for his return, but he declined to walk through it. Why would he do that when he could've been part of a guaranteed blockbuster?

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Shawn Levy acknowledged what we already knew: The production got in touch with Jones, but they couldn't make it work. As for why, Jones shared his rationale last March while promoting Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen":

"Funnily enough I just got asked to do 'Deadpool,' the new one now, and I spoke to the director and I just said it's such a drama putting that suit on mentally and physically. It had its mental toll as well because you're in it and you can't do anything all day, you can only drink through a straw. So we couldn't strike the deal for 'Deadpool [and Wolverine].'"

He then added, "'Deadpool's my favorite movie of all f***ing time, more or less. I really wanted to do it, but they didn't have the budget to put me in the suit."

This makes it sound like more of a money issue, which, hey, fair enough! It's just too bad because, as he told Comic Book Movie in 2020, he had an unpleasant time making "X-Men: The Last Stand" with director Brett Ratner, who Jones claims slashed down his part when he took over the project from Matthew Vaughn. As Jones explained, "They took [Juggernaut's] storyline away, they'd taken his character away, his dialogue. I had two big meetings with Brett about it, and he said, 'Yeah, yeah, it's coming. They're writing stuff for you as we speak' and it never f***ing happened."

Jones and Juggernaut deserved better, and I'm not sure a cameo in "Deadpool & Wolverine" (where the character is played by Aaron W. Reed) would've made the actor feel better about getting shined on by Ratner (who hasn't directed a film since being accused in 2017 by multiple women of sexual harassment and/or assault). Alas, that's probably a wrap on this Juggernaut, though Jones could always find his way back to the MCU in another role.