Walker Scobell’s Kidpool role in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ almost happened (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Deadpool & Wolverine.

Of the many, many cameos and guest stars in Deadpool & Wolverine, there were only a handful of actors fans were surprised not to see in the film. One, of course, was Taylor Swift. Another was Walker Scobell, the current lead of the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Scobell had his breakthrough moment by starring opposite Ryan Reynolds in 2022’s The Adam Project, which was also directed by Shawn Levy, the filmmaker behind Deadpool & Wolverine. Scobell played a younger version of Reynolds’ time-displaced character, and the then-13-year-old made it clear he was a Deadpool fan. As he demonstrated during an Entertainment Weekly video shoot with Levy and the Adam Project cast, he can recite Reynolds’ “f— Wolverine” monologue from Deadpool 2 by heart.

Naturally, fans felt like he’d be a perfect fit to play Kidpool, a pre-teen variant of Reynolds’ Deadpool in Deadpool & Wolverine. So did Levy and Reynolds, but it didn’t happen. The director explains why in an interview with EW.

“If Walker Scobell had stopped evolving right before puberty, he absolutely would’ve been Kidpool,” the director says. “It was his dream. Ryan and I reached out to him once we realized he was now going to be too old, both too tall and with his voice too low. Puberty is what it is, and all the Hollywood dreams in the world can’t stop it. So we did call Walker and explain why he couldn’t be Kidpool, and he was completely understanding.”

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Kidpool shows up as one of a horde of Deadpool variants from alternate realities that comprise the Deadpool Corps. Among them are Blake Lively as Lady Deadpool, Nathan Fillion as Headpool (a floating zombie head of Deadpool), Matthew McConaughey as Cowboy Deadpool, Wrexham A.F.C. football player Paul Mullin as Welshpool (Reynolds and Rob McElhenney own the U.K.-based football club), Reynolds and Lively’s son Olin as Babypool, and Tom Holland‘s brother Harry as another Deadpool variant.

Instead of Scobell, Kidpool is voiced by Inez, Reynolds and Lively’s 7-year-old daughter.

Scobell, now 15, did attend Deadpool & Wolverine‘s New York City premiere, where he reunited with his Adam Project buddies. “My long reunion hug with Walker at the premiere in New York was one of my favorite parts of that whole night,” Levy adds.

This wasn’t the only cameo that didn’t happen. Levy recalls a conversation around casting Vinnie Jones, who played X-Men villain Juggernaut in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, but “that didn’t really go very far,” he says. Instead Andrew W. Reed is credited as the actor playing the helmeted colossus in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Scobell, however, has a juicy gig playing Percy Jackson in the series adaptation of author Rick Riordan’s YA books about the son of Poseidon. “It feels older,” Scobell told EW of the upcoming season at Comic-Con. “It feels comfortable, but different.”