Taylor Swift was never, ever, ever gonna be in Deadpool & Wolverine.
That’s according to director Shawn Levy, who came clean about the rumors in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“It was never a conversation. It was never even a seed of a discussion,” Levy admitted. “Obviously, Ryan and Blake, and myself, to a far lesser extent, have our own relationships in real life with Taylor. But, yeah, those rumors were loud and slightly baffling, but nothing I said or did was going to make them quiet down until this movie came out.”
Swift has long been rumored to be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe — in recent years, most speculation has centered on the X-Men character, Dazzler. The fact that X-Men characters popped up in Deadpool & Wolverine also helped fans make the case that she would either appear as Dazzler, or Lady Deadpool, as previewed in a trailer.
“I definitely had moments where I was worried I would disappoint people when they realized Taylor as Dazzler was not in the movie,” Levy admitted. “But there’s no controlling the internet, and rumors spread like wildfire.”
Swift’s longtime friendship with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively — who actually ended up voicing Lady Deadpool — also added fuel to the rumor mill, along with the fact the couple, Levy and Hugh Jackman all joined Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs football game last fall.
For his part, Levy has said that he loved all the rumors, as they helped him to cast further doubt on the real-life celebrity cameos that popped up in the film — like Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Channing Tatum as Gambit.
In fact, the director told ET last November that he found the many, varied Deadpool 3 casting rumors to be “hilarious, and also really useful because now there’s no way for people to tell what’s real and what’s not. So I can just sit back and just let the wave of accuracy and falsehood wash over me.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now.
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