Of the names associated with the Disney acquisition of Fox, Deadpool is one at the front of many fans' minds. Along with the X-Men Fox characters, the Merc with a Mouth is right up there as one of the most anticipated characters to make their MCU debut. Ryan Reynolds has long been adamant that Deadpool 3 is coming, and it seems to be only a matter of time before he makes himself known at Marvel Studios.
But when will it happen? The question of when these Fox characters will finally show up has become quite the hot topic. There is evidence that audiences will get their first taste of the X-Men universe in the MCU coming up in May's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Wade Wilson, on the other hand, is still sitting on the sidelines and waiting to get his first taste of action. Well, if some new concept art is to be believed, Deadpool may have been planned for, but ultimately cut from, a Marvel Studios film that came in 2021.
Deadpool in Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings senior concept illustrator Andrew Kim shared images from his work on the MCU project, including glimpses of Deadpool doing battle at Xu Xialing's Golden Daggers Club fight club in Macau.
The images show a similar battle to the one fans ultimately got between Abomination and Wong.
In this new concept art, Wade Wilson is going toe-to-toe with Proxima Midnight.
It is unknown if these two characters were ever planned for appearances in Shang-Chi, or if this was just an artist having fun. But seeing as Proxima Midnight met her untimely demise in Avengers: Infinity War, and then again in Avengers: Endgame, this is likely a case of the latter.
A Dip into the Deadpool
Deadpool will be back on a theater screen sometime soon, but for now, fans will have to continue to wait. Even so, it is exciting to look at these concept images and think about "what could have been."
This is likely a case of a concept artist working very early in the development of a project and using various characters as placeholders. It is not as if the crew actually shot anything featuring Wade Wilson. These are concept pieces for a reason.
Concept art serves as more a tone-setter than anything, allowing for the various creatives down the line to look back and picture what they were going for in the first place.
If Ryan Reynolds' anti-hero were to have appeared in Shang-Chi, while it would have been nice to see the actor back in the suit, it's not hard to imagine that many fans would have been upset with such a small cameo.
Surely, when Deadpool does finally make his MCU debut it will come with much more gravitas than serving as set decoration in an underground Macau fight club.
