“He’s a Hardcore Villain.”
Aaron Stanford reveals why Pyro feels so different in Deadpool & Wolverine — and whether we’ll ever see the X-Men character again.
Pyro is back. In the most self-aware Marvel movie of all time, one X-Men character who defined a generation of angsty mutants has undergone a big transformation. Eighteen years after his final appearance as John “Pyro” Allerdyce in X-Men: The Last Stand, Aaron Stanford returns to the X-Men universe — and joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe, too — in Deadpool & Wolverine. But for Stanford, this return wasn’t exactly a homecoming. It was something new.
“This is a different, very different version of Pyro than the old X-Men movies,” Stanford tells Inverse.
“He’s a hardcore villain in this.”
In the blood-soaked aftermath of Deadpool & Wolverine, we caught up with the super-talented and prolific Stanford to discussed Pyro’s fate in the movie, why this is a different character on some level from the one we first met in X2: X-Men United, and what the new movie’s ending means for the future of his iconic Mutant.
Warning: Huge spoilers ahead for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Aaron Stanford returns as a “hardcore” Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine.
One thing Stanford wants X-Men fans to remember about Deadpool & Wolverine is that this is a multiverse movie, which means we’re seeing a version of Pyro but perhaps not the version we remember from X2 and The Last Stand.
“Deadpool is very over the top,” Stanford says. “It’s a satire. It’s a send-up. So it’s a different side of Pyro for sure. Pyro is definitely like bad. He’s a hardcore villain in this.”
Stanford says thinking of Pyro as a “‘70s Bond villain” isn’t far off at this point, and contrasts this with more troubled and conflicted character he played back in X2.
“I just wonder how the fans — the really hardcore fans of Pyro from X2 — will feel,” he muses. “Those fans responded to him on a deep level. I think a lot of people saw themselves in the character or Pyro; this outsider amongst outsiders.”
“He’s essentially a product of this prison dimension where he’s living.”
Stanford’s analysis of Pyro back then is very different than how he sees Pyro now. While the X2 version was sort of seduced by Magneto as a “father figure,” the Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine is broken in a way that feels somewhat similar to Magneto himself — nihilistic and willing to sacrifice anyone who gets in his way.
“Pryo can never be as traumatized as Magneto was,” Stanford says. “We know Magneto’s backstory. But he’s physically broken down. He’s essentially a product of this prison dimension where he’s living.”
Aaron Stanford as Pyro back in 2003’s groundbreaking X2.
Big spoiler, but by the end of Deadpool & Wolverine, Pyro doesn’t make it out alive. However, Stanford doesn’t think that means a version of Pyro couldn’t return in a future MCU project. After all, Stanford’s 12 Monkeys collaborator Terry Matalas is creating a new Marvel show about Vision. Could a variant of Pyro show up there or in some other future movie?
“All of that is possible,” Stanford enthuses. “And there’s so many different versions of Pyro throughout the comics. You take your pick of which of the infinite storylines you want to follow. So who knows?”
“Pyro’s speech was going to be about what he's been through.”
One big question that fans probably have about Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine is connected to something we didn’t get to see and hear. At one point, Pryo is about to deliver an epic villain speech, which is cut very short. But did the full speech exist? Is there a deleted scene?
“No,” Stanford says. “The plan was always to shut Pyro down as quickly as possible. There was a long-winded villain speech in my head, of course. But no, it was never scripted.”
That said, Stanford reveals he did dream-up what he would have said if given the chance.
“Pyro’s speech was going to be about what he's been through,” Stanford explains. “He's been imprisoned in this awful nightmarish place and Cassandra’s basically like a combination between the prison warden and the toughest convict on the cell block. It would just be his chance to unleash this tirade of all this pent up resentment.”
So, somewhere in the multiverse, there’s another version of Deadpool & Wolverine where Stanford could have added his own material. But in this reality, perhaps there was never any other option.
“It’s the story of my life,” he says. “Every role I've ever had, there’s just pages and pages of fan fiction in my head that I have layered in, and it doesn't necessarily get to screen.”
