Thanks to the sheer level of secrecy and denials that come with any Marvel Cinematic Universe project, an actor saying they’re not in a certain movie or TV show does absolutely nothing to dampen the speculation.
It’s been par for the course with the superhero franchise for years, but Spider-Man: No Way Home elevated things to a whole new level after Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield repeatedly went out of their way to claim there was only one Peter Parker in the multiversal epic, and we all know how that turned out.
Literally dozens upon dozens of MCU favorites have been rumored for Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but so far the only one that seems to have been confirmed is Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier. Ryan Reynolds promised he wasn’t in the Sorcerer Supreme’s solo sequel, but as you can see from the reactions below, nobody believes him.
On the plus side, we’ve only got to wait until May 6 to find out if he’s telling the truth or not, but even if Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness doesn’t feature the Merc with a Mouth’s first big screen appearance in the MCU, there’s almost certainly going to be more than enough surprise guests to compensate for his absence.