Of Course, Rob McElhenney Is Gonna Appear in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

After years of flaunting their power-friendship on TV and in the English football league system, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have confirmed that the latter super-pal will appear in the former’s upcoming action-comedy Deadpool & Wolverine. In more shocking news, Mac is gay.

The trajectory of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and creator is damn near a superhero origin story in and of itself. After finding himself unsatisfied with waiting tables and performing the occasional acting gigs in Los Angeles, a young McElhenney decided to scrape together $200 to shoot a short film with a few of his friends that eventually became a criminally underfunded comedy series at FX. 

Then, the scrappy first few seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia gradually and exponentially attracted a cult-following (and an A-list addition to the cast) that propelled the sitcom into mega-hit territory, breaking records and backing up Brinks trucks for its creators in the process. Today, McElhenney is a veritable entertainment mogul who regularly rubs shoulders with the industry’s most venerable titans. But, when he shakes his newest co-stars hand, he should make sure that the claws are retracted.

On a recent episode of McElhenney and Reynolds’ FX show Welcome to Wrexham about their co-ownership of the titular Welsh soccer club, one scene showed McElhenney and Reynolds on set for Deadpool & Wolverine discussing McElhenney’s cameo in this summer’s superhero comedy in guarded terms. The duo revealing as few details about McElhenney’s character in the film for fear that a “Marvel drone” will catch them spilling company secrets — as if the multiple TV cameras and lavalier microphones couldn’t pick that up.

As many Marvel fans and Marvel reporters pointed out, McElhenney’s awkwardly poofy cover-up didn’t perfectly disguise what is presumably his costume in Deadpool & Wolverine, and though he and Reynolds both declined to reveal any details about his character, the dots are pretty easy to connect with a simple ocular pat-down. Underneath the heavy coat, McElhenney is clearly wearing a uniform bearing the logo of the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, a multiversal timeline management bureaucracy that is central to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current phase.

For that reason, Marvel and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans alike are convinced that McElhenney will play a stooge of the TVA in the upcoming movie, and may even wear one of their bulky helmets to obscure his face on camera in order save the cameo reveal for the film’s third act — or for the late-night press tour.

As fun and obligatory as McElhenney’s Deadpool cameo will be, the reveal still isn’t as exciting as it would be if McElhenney made a surprise appearance in the Thunder Gun series. Though, despite making his body the subject of so many It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia jokes, maybe Mac’s still not ready to hang dong.