Deadpool & Wolverine Concept Art Includes Ben Affleck's Daredevil & Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider

What happens when the most improvisation-heavy superhero studio around meets the Merc with a Mouth, the most chaotic superhero of them all? By the looks of things, you get an ambitious production like "Deadpool & Wolverine" where, at some point, it seems as if anything and everything was probably on the table. The final version of the team-up movie we ended up with is practically bursting with cameos and Easter eggs. Chris Evans' reappearance as Johnny Storm would've been a massive coup all on its own, but director Shawn Levy and star/co-writer Ryan Reynolds went the extra mile to recruit even more blockbuster castoffs, including the likes of Jennifer Garner's Elektra, Channing Tatum's Gambit (a phrase that takes on several meanings, considering his ridiculous accent), and, of course, Wesley Snipes' unfailingly badass Blade.

Yet that hardly even scratches the surface of all the concepts tossed around for what "Deadpool & Wolverine" could've potentially been. Even on a standard Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, all the aborted notions and initial ideas that were ultimately scrapped tend to take up quite a lot of oxygen after release. We can safely dial that up to 11 on this film, if newly-released concept art is anything to go by.

In an Instagram post, illustrator, concept artist, and Marvel Studios' Visual Development Supervisor Rodney Fuentebella dropped one of his patented concept illustrations for "Deadpool & Wolverine." Among the plethora of Deadpool variants squeezed into the frame, there are some fascinating inclusions thrown in there, as well. It's clearly an early iteration of the show-stopping fight sequence between Wade Wilson, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and all the Deadpools, but a closer look reveals a couple of surprises — namely, Ben Affleck's Daredevil and Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider. As it turns out, "Deadpool & Wolverine" could've been even wilder.

The headlines practically write themselves, don't they? It's a long, long way between page and screen, to be fair, but one can't help but daydream about just how many more surprise cameos and guest appearances "Deadpool & Wolverine" could've packed into its already-crowded ensemble cast. That goes double in the wake of the new concept illustration posted on social media by Marvel veteran Rodney Fuentebella. You can check it out for yourself below, along with his caption setting the artwork in its proper context:

"Here is an early concept illustration I did for the [Marvel Studios] 'Deadpool & Wolverine' film. This was in the beginning stages of the making of the film so a lot changed but I wanted to show the how epic and awesome this film could be at the time. I had a blast creating all the interactions between our heroes and the Deadpool variants. Thank you to [Marvel Director of Visual Development Andy Park] for leading this project on the [visual development] side and to all the Marvel Studios peps."

Fans will be quick to spot a few other unexpected characters (hello, Deadpool Dinosaur), but the main scene-stealers are undoubtedly Ben Affleck's version of Daredevil from the 2003 film and Nicolas Cage from 2007's "Ghost Rider." Fuentebella goes on to explain that this artwork will be featured along with many others in Marvel's upcoming "The Art of Deadpool & Wolverine" book, which is due out this October. We knew that Cage's Ghost Rider almost appeared in the movie, but just imagine how much more awkward that Affleck/Garner divorce joke would've been had Affleck actually been in the movie. Maybe that'll happen in another sequel ... but probably not.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is now playing in theaters.