‘It Looks Like They Gave Somebody A Favor’: The Punisher Alum Didn’t Hold Back About His Character Being Recast For Deadpool And Wolverine

One of the weirdest and wildest films of this year or any other, Deadpool & Wolverine is a masterclass in surprise superhero cameos , with familiar faces such as Wesley Snipes’ unexpected return as Blade and Henry Cavill’s Wolvie variant among many others. (Read our D&W review here .) That said, not all of the sequel’s live-action comic characters were direct reprisals from past projects. Cassandra Nova’s squad boasts several recast villains, including famed Punisher foe The Russian, who was portrayed by WWE icon Kevin Nash in the 2004 film.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who already knows how outspoken Nash has been throughout his career, the NWO co-founder had a particularly hilarious and semi-scathing reaction to seeing someone else wearing the character’s red and white stripes in the third Deadpool movie. Addressing the matter on his podcast Kliq THIS , Nash offered up this amusing barb:

That’s not a quote that’ll be used in any Deadpool & Wolverine marketing, but it’s a hilarious pull-quote nonetheless. While Kevin Nash doesn’t directly say that he would have signed on to play The Russian within the blockbuster’s Void scenes, but it doesn’t sound like he would have rudely scoffed at the idea, even 20 years after he last played the role.

Then again, maybe I’m making all the wrong assumptions, as Nash followed that up by calling out fans and detractors who might assume he’s only talking smack because he’s thirsty for movie roles. Here’s his sarcasm-dripping piece about that:

Nash went on to say that anybody who doesn’t know their lines and doesn’t know their roles will never make it as an actor, and that it’s a hard gig. So at this age, he’s perhaps not vociferously champing at the bit to jump into any upcoming Marvel movies that would require such lengthy workdays and streamlined attention. I know I’d love to see him back as Super Shredder in some capacity in the world of the Ninja Turtles, but I’m not holding out many hopes.

For those wondering why Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t go the whole 99 yards to bring back every possible actor and character from non-MCU canon, there isn’t just a single reason. Some of it was a financial issue, which Ryan Reynolds addressed when talking out why 2015’s Fantastic Four characters weren’t in the cameo mix.

And as far as the decisions went on a character-by-character basis, director Shawn Levy said this to Variety :

For my money, I'd rather see Kevin Nash return as The Russian in Disney+'s upcoming Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again , since we know Jon Bernthal's Punisher is involved. But until we find out more about that show, we'll just have to watch Deadpool & Wolverine continue to rake in the money at the box office.