Deadpool & Wolverine’s Aaron Stanford confirmed which Variant of his Pyro character is running around The Void in Marvel Studios’ latest film.
Earlier in 2024, Pyro was one of the first big reveals when it came to what other known Marvel characters would return for Deadpool 3. However, it wasn't immediately clear if this version of the villain was the same as the one audiences last saw in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.
After all, at the end of the day, this could just have been a similar but completely different Pyro — one audiences have never followed.
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Aaron Stanford Confirms Which Pyro Featured in Deadpool 3
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Russ Milheim, Pyro actor Aaron Stanford revealed which Variant of his character appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Stanford confirmed that "it is the established Pyro" that was featured in both X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, though "a lot of time has passed... since we last saw him:"
"A lot of time has passed, and he's been through a lot. So, you see that in the--It's not meant to be a situation where he was ripped straight from Professor X's Academy and, like, time traveled. This is a Pyro who has somehow been banished to this 'Mad Max' wasteland, and he's in this hellish limbo for who knows how long. But you can see, just by his physical appearance, that he's been through the wringer. So it is the established Pyro, but he's been through a lot since we last saw him."
"I was pleasantly surprised," Stanford noted of how much his character got to do in the movie, adding how he "feel[s] very lucky and very grateful:"
"I was pleasantly surprised. In my first phone call with Shawn [Levy], he said we got a lot of easter eggs in this movie. A lot of just quick, fast appearances. A little bit of Halloween candy for the fans. He's like, for Pyro, you've got an arc. You're in the movie, man... Honestly, I reserved my excitement because you just never know how these things will shake out... They [even] added that scene with Pyro and Cassandra Nova at the end. So, it was great to get some one-on-one face time with Emma Corrin. I'm a huge fan of 'The Crown.' I feel very lucky and very grateful."
Stanford also had the honor of working with Chris Evans on his unexpected Marvel return — he even got to take the Human Torch down himself.
"It was fun to get to be a part of that," the actor explained, adding that "was [his] very first day of work:"
"It was great, man. I think that's one of the script's best little reversal hidden moments, the Johnny Storm little reveal. So it was fun to get to be a part of that. And that was my very first––I shot that scene, that was my very first day of work. I showed up to work and had read in the scripts where I was meant to be. And didn't know what to expect when I showed up."
The actor also exclaimed about how cool it was to film on a set with "a gigantic crumbling 20th Century Fox sign buried in the sand:"
"They drove us up to the site and to the set... It wasn't like a green screen studio situation. They pulled us up to this desert wasteland that they had constructed. And there was a gigantic crumbling 20th Century Fox sign buried in the sand towering over everybody... It was all physical, practical effects... It's really fun to be able to perform in a setting like that."
Sometimes, Marvel Studios pulls some trickery, and not all cast members will be on set at the same time — despite sharing the same screen.
When asked if Stanford got to film with Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman all at once, he proudly proclaimed, "Yes, [he] did."
He also added that those scenes, and "his first day of shooting," was right "when the Screen Actors Guild announced the strike:"
"Yes, we did. But that scene, in particular, was split. So, my very first day of work was that scene with Chris Evans. And right on my first day of shooting, that's when the Screen Actors Guild announced the strike when they confirmed that the strike was going to happen. So, we all came into work, they made a big announcement, they were like, All right, we've all been expecting this. And now it's happening. So we're finishing the day, and then everyone's leaving until this is resolved."
The actor divulged that the production tried their hardest to get all of Evans' coverage on the day, as they knew how hard it might be to get him back:
"So we shot the first part of that scene, and Chris was there, and they made damn sure to get all of his coverage because they knew how hard it was going to be to get him back. He's a busy guy. So they shot all of his stuff that day. And then when the rest of us came back after the strike was resolved, we shot all the rest of that stuff that we didn't really need him for, as well as the reverse coverage and all that stuff."
"It's like a penal colony," the actor said to describe Pyro's experience in the camp off-screen, adding how "there's a lot of resentment" between him and Cassandra Nova:
"It's like a penal colony. They all get shipped off to this place, and they're imprisoned there, and she's like, I don't know, a cross between a warden and the toughest guy on the cellblock who everyone has to do what they say. So yeah, I think there's definitely not a lot of warmth there. I think there's a lot of resentment, and he's had to live under her thumb for a very long time, and then he finally gets an opportunity to get the shank in there while she's distracted, and he does."
Further explaining Pyro's motivations in the film, Stanford clarified that his character wanted to be free of The Void and shipped off to a better Multiverse, no matter the cost:
"They say in the movie he's hoping to get released from The Void. And the way I thought of it was, I think it's something similar to 'The Matrix,' where the character played by Joey Pantoliano makes a deal that he'll kill all of his friends if he can be relocated to his dream version of The Matrix. So my idea was that Pyro struck some similar bargain with Paradox, saying like, 'Alright, I'll do this for you, but you have to ship me off to another multiverse where I can live the way I want to live and be who I want to be."
At the end of the day, returning after 20 years "still has [him] in shock," Stanford admitted, recalling how strange it was to be able to walk back up to Hugh Jackman and give him a hug:
"The whole thing still has me in shock. It was an unexpected development... Walking up to Hugh [Jackman] on set for the first time in 20 years. I haven't seen him since the old 'X-Men' movies. The old 'X-Men,' both of them were like six months shoots or something like that, so you get very close to people. And you develop these relationships, and they become like family, and then everyone just moves on to the next job. And it happens all over again. It's a really weird gypsy lifestyle... To get to be able to walk up and say hello, and give a hug to an old friend of mine from 20 years ago, and just, you know, see like, oh, you and I both traversed this time together. It's nice to see you again."
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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