There was a time when actors built entire careers playing “the friend.” The lieutenant. The reliable second-in-command. They brought texture, weight, and—if they were lucky—a memorable line or two. Nathan Fillion was born about 20 years too late to truly thrive in that era. And yet, here he is, still turning heads in 2024.
Fillion's recent outing as Headpool in Deadpool & Wolverine might not earn him an Oscar, but it quietly encapsulates something Hollywood's modern machinery has nearly forgotten: the value of the supporting man. The steady hand. The guy who shows up, makes a scene work, and then disappears without needing a spin-off, a Funko Pop, or a TikTok trend.
According to his interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fillion was almost part of Deadpool from the beginning. Back in 2016, while Castle was still eating up his schedule, he managed to film a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as an anonymous towel guy in a strip club—”unrecognizable,” as he requested. The scene was cut, of course. (If you really care, it's buried in the digital extras.)
Reynolds, loyal and generous as ever, tried again during Deadpool 2. It didn't stick. That should've been the end of it.
But this is Nathan Fillion we're talking about. He's been orbiting the blockbuster machine for over a decade—usually on the periphery, always dependable. A blue-collar sci-fi favorite (Firefly), a sitcom veteran, a genre convention king. Never quite the lead in the IP era. Always circling the sun.
So when Deadpool & Wolverine finally came knocking, it wasn't through auditions or a press release. It started with a text. “Hey, would you do me a favor?” Reynolds asked. Fillion, ever the pro, started recording.
“We started at one character, then we moved over to being Headpool,” he says. “And then we were futzing the jokes.” You can almost hear the shrug in his voice. No grand plan. Just work.
And that's the part people forget. While the big trades obsess over box office numbers and surprise cameos, these odd jobs—the voice recordings, the ADR tweaks, the discarded characters who live in the margins—are what make comic book films bearable. Sometimes even delightful.
Headpool, for the uninitiated, is literally a decapitated zombie version of Deadpool. He's a side gag. A background voice. A throwaway bit, unless someone like Fillion gets his hands on it. Then suddenly, he's memorable. Offbeat. Weirdly human.
Most of Fillion's recorded lines didn't even make the final cut. That's another lesson: in these films, your best work can—and often will—end up on the floor. But Fillion kept showing up. He kept lending his voice. And when the director, Shawn Levy, finally called to say, “We don't really see any reason to rerecord these,” it wasn't just a compliment. It was a nod to an actor who knows how to deliver, even when no one's watching.
There's something satisfying about that kind of story in 2024, when most film news feels like a looping ad campaign. Fillion's journey to Deadpool & Wolverine didn't come through agents or hashtags. It came through relationships. Craft. Quiet persistence.
Of course, whether we see Headpool again is anyone's guess. Avengers: Doomsday might dust off the Deadpool Corps, but that's a long shot. And frankly, it doesn't matter. Because Fillion's real future now sits in James Gunn's DCU. He's already turned heads as Guy Gardner in Superman—a role he'll reprise in Peacemaker Season 2 and the upcoming Lanterns series. And unlike Headpool, Gardner has legs.
Still, I'll miss Headpool.
Because in a landscape of overexposed leads and soulless CGI sludge, Fillion—just a head in a box—reminded us what a real actor sounds like.
Confirmed Releases:
- Deadpool & Wolverine – Now available on Digital, 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Disney+
- Superman – Currently playing in theaters
- Peacemaker Season 2 – TBD 2025
- Lanterns – In development (release date TBA)
