Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy has confirmed there was never any truth behind the Taylor Swift cameo rumors.
The superhero blockbuster is chock full of cameos, but despite rampant speculation in the months leading up to its release, Taylor Swift is not one of them.
Speaking to Variety, Levy confirmed an appearance from the pop star was never on the table and instead just a rumor that spread like wildfire.
Thank you, internet, for building such a smokescreen of rumors and half-truths.
“That was one of the loudest rumors that came out of nowhere,” he said of the Swift cameo talk. “It was never true. Thank you, internet, for building such a smokescreen of rumors and half-truths so that no one ever knew what was going to happen.”
Rumors of Taylor Swift’s involvement fired up in September 2022 when fans noticed the Deadpool & Wolverine announcement trailer was filmed in the same house where the singer filmed her All Too Well: The Short Film, leading many Swifties to think she could show up as the pop star mutant Dazzler in the film.
There were lots of other “clues” along the way — some even thought she could be taking on Ladypool (a role that instead went to Blake Lively) — but a report ahead of the movie’s release confirmed that Swift was not on the casting roster alongside Ryan Reynold’s Merc with a Mouth and Hugh Jackman’s Clawed Crusader.
It is not the first time Swift’s name has come up in casting conspiracies. Many believed the singer-songwriter was moonlighting as Agylle novelist Elly Conway based on several references associating Swift with the story, but filmmaker Matthew Vaughn denied the theory, stating Conway has no relation to Swift.
Despite not having Swift’s star power, Deadpool & Wolverine — unlike Argylle — has smashed several box office records. The movie had the largest R-rated global box office opening ever with a staggering $438.3 million and the eighth-biggest domestic weekend box office debut of all time, with ticket sales reaching $205 million.
IGN’s review of Deadpool & Wolverine called the MCU blockbuster “an outrageous, consistently funny superhero comedy that succeeds largely thanks to the contagious enthusiasm of leads Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and a surprisingly classy perspective on superhero movie history.” But it left us with some questions.
Image Credit: Gregor Fischer/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter here.
