Ryan Reynolds really made Rob McElhenney fly out to the Deadpool & Wolverine set, get into costume and wander around a soundstage all day just to cut his scene from the movie. Next we’re going to find out that Reynolds was the one who convinced McElhenney to become Fat Mac, too.
The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and star’s ongoing bromance with his Welcome to Wrexham partner Reynolds is a slightly divisive topic within the Always Sunny fandom, but over in the Deadpool fandom, we haven’t heard a peep about McElhenney dragging down Reynolds in his super-antihero trilogy — probably because Reynolds still won’t let McElhenney anywhere near his personal projects. As Deadpool & Wolverine continues to shatter box-office records for an R-rated film and displace The Passion of the Christ from the all-time top spot in the process, the only “serious” controversy that Reynolds’ third and most successful installment in the Deadpool franchise has garnered is the outrage of the religious right, who have called for a hilariously unsuccessful boycott of Deadpool & Wolverine over Deadpool’s continued use of the phrase “Marvel Jesus” to describe himself.
However, Deadpool & Wolverine may have its first major fandom rift on its hands after McElhenney confirmed in an interview with Deadline that, despite all the extra effort he put in to appear in his business and life partner’s newest and biggest project, Reynolds and his editors ultimately left McElhenney’s scene out of the film’s final cut.
During the talk with Deadline, McElhenney recalled his extensive history with being cut from films, including from the first movie gig he ever booked in 1997’s Harrison Ford-starred thriller The Devil’s Own. Said McElhenney of his first exclusion, “I can look back on it now and it’s funny, but it was not funny at the time.” McElhenney then admitted, “Subsequent to that, once I got on the other side of the camera and in the editing room, you realize how often things need to be cut out that have nothing to do with performance.”
However, that doesn’t completely take the sting out of such a cut, as McElhenney exclaimed, “It just happened again! It just happened again last weekend! Last weekend, I was cut out of a small little independent movie, maybe it was… Is it a Swedish film? Or maybe a French film? Diiiyedpuuul…. Deadpool!”
“You’re in that movie?!” interviewer Pete Hammond asked McElhenney.
“I was!” McElhenney replied. “Until Ryan cut me out!”
Obviously, the only proper response from McElhenney for a snub such as this is for him to harness the production power of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for “The Gang Makes Deadpool 4” — hopefully, sans blackface.