Interview: Deadpool & Wolverine’s Aaron Stanford Talks Reprising X-Men Role in MCU Movie

ComingSoon Senior Movie News Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Aaron Stanford about reprising his role as John Allerdyce/Pyro in Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Standford, who previously played the character in 2003’s X2 and 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, discussed the legacy of the Fox X-Men movies, what Pyro’s journey looks like in Deadpool & Wolverine, and how he’d be willing to return for future MCU projects.

Directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine also stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, and more. The film will be released in United States theaters on July 26, 2024, from Marvel Studios.

Brandon Schreur: I am so excited to be talking to you about X-Men, and I’m so excited for Deadpool & Wolverine. Everything I’ve seen from it just looks amazing and super fun. It’s going to be a hoot, I’m sure.

Aaron Stanford: It’s going to be great.

Before we get to Deadpool & Wolverine, I’m wondering if you can tell me a little bit about what it’s like looking back at the first X-Men movies you were in. I know X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand kind of came right before — I mean, a lot of people have rightfully said those movies helped kickstart the whole superhero movie craze with the MCU coming shortly after that. What’s it like looking back at those movies, now, in 2024?

It was a long time ago, first of all. It’s a long look back. You’re absolutely right, when I look back at those movies I see the seed of everything that came after. There were big movies prior to that, the biggest one I remember being Tim Burton’s Batman. There were these big event comic book movies here and there that did have some heft to them, had some weight to them.

But X2, specifically, I think, was one of the first ones that really did nail a specific tone and helped people see these comic book films less as a niche genre or a medium for children. It really showed that a comic book film could have complexity, depth, and heft, and it could deal with relevant social and political issues, along with timeless human dynamics. I think it sort of set the bar for what came after. It also illustrated the tremendous appetite for it. They were such huge successes that people saw what was possible. It ended up opening the door for what came after.

I think it showed people these movies could be darker, too. I love the first X-Men movie, but the tone changes in X2 where things get darker and more intense.

Yeah. It did help illustrate there’s an appetite for that. It’s interesting because I feel like that keeps being illustrated, and yet, there’s still resistance to it. I do feel like you have to pull the industry kicking and screaming even though we keep seeing that people want that, they’re ready for that. Even the original Deadpool, I know it was the first R-rated comic book film of its time. It took a long time to get there, a long time for studios to actually be convinced to take a chance on that. It shattered box office records and showed that people want this, they’re ready for this, they’re ready for the edgier stuff and darker stuff.

Totally. What was your relationship like with X-Men and Pyro, specifically, before you started starring in the movies? Were you a fan before?

I was a fan of X-Men, in general, and I knew of Pyro, but he wasn’t a character that was on my radar in any significant way. I think with Pyro, they really wanted something specific and they built the character around what they needed for the film. I think they really wanted to do the thing with Professor X’s students. They wanted this next generation of X-Men, and they wanted Pyro as this counterbalance to Iceman. I’m sure they knew at some point they were going to have some very, very visually stimulating scene of ice and fire battling one another. I think they also wanted that to play out in their respective temperments, as well. There were certain parts of the character they kept faithful to the comic book, but a lot of adjustments were made as well to suit this new need.

I know the character was first introduced to the comics in the 1980s. For a lot of the non-comic book readers, when they think of Pyro, they think of you first and foremost. Have you noticed that over the years? I know it’s been a while since The Last Stand, but do people still come up to you and say they know you from the X-Men movies?

Every once in a while that will happen. It certainly happened a lot more back then. As time has passed — I’m the sort of actor where I’ve been doing this for almost 25 years, now. What I get is not people recognizing who I am; I get people seeing me, doing a double-take, and saying, “I know you from somewhere.”

A lot of the time what it will end up being is Pyro. I’ll list a couple of my more recent jobs but when I say I was in the original X-Men films as Pyro they’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah! You were the jerk, I remember!’

I know that, after The Last Stand, the X-Men franchise went a bunch of different ways. There were a bunch of prequels and everything with the whole other trilogy. Did you think you were done at that point or have any intention of coming back?

I did think I was done. I thought that the arc was finished. There was a brief moment when Days of Future Past was casting and I knew they were calling up some of my old castmates, I thought that maybe they’d call me back for that but it didn’t end up happening. After that, I figured they’d moved on and that was it. It was a surprise to get the phone call that they were resurrecting the character after all this time.

That’s what I was going to ask you about next. What was that phone call like? I know the road to Deadpool & Wolverine has been a long one. Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Feige have talked about how it took forever to figure out what it was going to look like and Ryan Reynolds pitched a bunch of different visions. At what point did you get the phone call saying they want you back?

It happened by degrees. I got a bunch of phone calls where it was like, ‘The MCU is calling and they want to know what your schedule is and your availability is, but they’re not saying what it’s about.’ Eventually, I got the phone call saying Shawn Levy wanted to speak to you and get on a Zoom with you. At that point, it became very obvious that it was definitely about Deadpool.

I got on the call with him, and he told me what the idea was overall. At this point, there’s a lot of heartbreak in this profession and there’s a lot of rejection. There are a lot of things that don’t pan out and a lot of things that seem to pan out but then fall apart. There are a lot of ways for things to go wrong. So when Shawn was telling me they wanted to bring Pyro back, immediately my mind started racing, ‘How could this go bad? It seems a little too good to be true, so how is this going to go south?’ I kept waiting for the bottom to drop out of it and it never did. It ended up not only happening, but when I got the material, the role was great. I’m in scenes with people I’m really excited about being in scenes with. Pyro has a complete arc, and it ended up being great.

That’s awesome. Was it hard or daunting — you get the call saying they want you back playing a character you haven’t played in over a decade, almost two at this point. Is there intimidation that comes with that or do you just snap right back in?

I’d seen the other Deadpools, and they’re so much fun. I knew what the tone was going to be so there was less of that and more just excitement. I knew that it was going to be handled well and that it was going to be a lot of fun. I just knew.

I know there’s probably some stuff you can talk about and some stuff that you can’t talk about. In a general sense, how has Pyro changed since we’ve last seen him?

I can’t talk too much about it or give away too much, but given what people have already seen in the trailers, obviously, quite some time has passed. Pyro has been through a lot by the time they find him. They find him in the sort of wasteland that you see in all those trailers. The years have not been kind. He’s become twisted, at this point, but I’m constrained from really getting into too many details about where he actually is when they come across him.

I totally understand. I saw there was a new costume for Pyro? That’s exciting.

Yeah, it’s fun. It’s from the Ultimate X-Men run. It’s X-Men in sort of this Ultimate Universe. They took Pyro’s look from that specific comic, where he’s a version of Pyro who is horribly burned all over his body and face from being a pyromaniac and playing with fire all those years. He’s gone slowly insane. They took the costume from that and the red goggles he has.

That’s awesome. Just seeing the quick footage from the trailers and everything, it’s a cool look. What was it like stepping into a big MCU production like this? Especially since you were in the old movies, I’m sure that was one thing. Was this similar or was it a completely different experience?

It was different. The old X-Men movies, they were enormous. It was a huge production and budget, particularly for that time. With Deadpool, it was even bigger. It was just enormous. Not only is the MCU what it is, but they have tremendous ambition for this movie. They want it to be like the biggest movie of all time. Even just on a physical scale — when I showed up to set on the first day, that wasteland was talking about, we drove up and they had built that out. They built that gigantic wasteland. The first thing I saw was an enormous, crumbling 20th Century Fox sign that was buried in the desert and was the size of a three-story building. I had just assumed that would be a green screen, but no. They completely built that out. It’s a rare experience to be in a movie like that where the fantasy world — ordinarily, as an actor, you’re going to have to put that together in your head and there’s going to be a green screen. To be able to be immersed in that environment and really feel like you’re there was something else.

I’m sure it’s like stepping into a whole different world. That’s awesome. With Deadpool & Wolverine obviously being set in the MCU, it’s the first time your character makes an MCU appearance. Do you think there’s a future for him beyond Deadpool & Wolverine?

I couldn’t say. That’s not up to me. I guess it depends on what the audience thinks of him. We’ll see. Maybe if there’s enough enthusiasm.

Would you be willing to come back? Are you totally into this world, now?

Yeah. I love the character, first of all. Obviously, it’s something that’s part of me. It’s part of my history. I loved resurrecting him, and I’d love for him to stick around for a while. If there were something that was in the vein of X2 or a Deadpool movie and it was that type of storytelling, I’d love to do it again.

Thanks to Aaron Stanford for discussing Deadpool & Wolverine.