‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ Actor Vinnie Jones Reveals He Turned Down Opportunity To Reprise Role In ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Because Studio Lacked Budget

March 8, 2024 ·

John F. Trent

Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), 20th Century Fox

Vinnie Jones, who played the villain Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand, revealed he turned down the opportunity to reprise the role in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film.

Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), 20th Century Fox

Speaking with Yahoo! Movies, Jones explained why he turned down the opportunity to reprise his role as Juggernaut, “Funnily enough I just got asked to do Deadpool, the new one now, and I spoke to the director and I just said it’s such a drama putting that suit on mentally and physically.”

He elaborated, “I mean it had its mental toll as well because you’re in it and you can’t do anything all day, you can only drink through a straw. So we couldn’t strike the deal for Deadpool.”

READ: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer Admits Marvel Cinematic Universe Needs Saving

While it sounded like he initially turned down the role because he didn’t want to be stuck in the suit, Jones revealed the actual reason: Marvel Studios lacked the budget.

He said, “But Deadpool’s my favourite movie of all f***ing time more or less. I really wanted to do it, but they didn’t have the budget to put me in the suit.”

The fact that Marvel Studios lacks the budget to have Jones reprise his role might be astounding to some given the track record of Marvel Studios in the late 2010s. The company dominated the box office with mega blockbusters such as Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Captain Marvel all grossing over $1 billion worldwide.

Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity grossed over $2 billion with Endgame raking in $2.7 billion globally.

READ: ‘X-Men: First Class’ Director Matthew Vaughn Admits Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Dead, Says ‘Deadpool 3’ Can “Bring That Body Back To Life”

However, more recent films have not done as well and have ended up losing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. The most recent example is The Marvels. The film only grossed $199.7 million despite having a production north of $274.8 million.

Other films that struggled at the box office and lost the company money are Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Eternals.

The studio has also seemingly blown a ton of money on their Disney+ productions. Last quarter The Walt Disney Company reported Disney+ lost 1.3 million subscribers with 400,000 of those leaving coming from North America.

Viewership of Marvel Studios series such as Echo and Secret Invasion have been much lower than series that came out when Disney+ was much newer such as Loki.

For example, according to Nielsen data, Echo only managed to bring in 731 million minutes viewed across both Hulu and Disney+ for all five of the episodes that released at the same time.

The first episode of Loki that debuted back in 2021 raked in 731 million minutes by itself according to Nielsen. That’s right, five episodes of a show released in 2024 matched a single episode of a series released in 2021.

READ: Marvel Studios’ ‘Echo’ Falls Off Nielsen Charts, Loses At Least Half Of Its Audience In Just One Week

Not only are Marvel Studios’ struggles at the box office and streaming well documented, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige even admitted the company would be cutting back.

Feige told Entertainment Weekly last year, “We want Marvel Studios and the MCU projects to really stand out and stand above. So, people will see that as we get further into Phase 5 and 6. The pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine.”

He then confirmed they would be cutting the number of shows they were producing as well as spacing them out, saying, “Both, I think.”

Still later in the interview he said, “I think when we are doing about eight projects a year — and again, I said this is going to shift a little bit — they all have to be different. They all have to stand apart and stand alone and be different from one another.”

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.

Clearly, Marvel Studios was cutting its budgets by reducing the number of films and TV shows they were going to make, but it now appears that they’ve also slashed budgets for the films and TV shows they are making.

It’ll be interesting to see how this will play out and whether or not it will improve the quality of the product Marvel Studios has been delivering lately.