Aaron Stanford will be making be making a cameo as his X-Men character Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine. Stanford’s Pyro first appeared in X2: X-Men United and in X-Men: The Last Stand (colloquially known as X3). The live-action Pyro of the movies shared a power with his Marvel Comics counterpart: the ability to manipulate but not create fire. However, beyond that, there were really very few similarities between the comic character and the cinematic version of Pyro played by Stanford. But will Pyro be more inspired by his Marvel Comics roots when he returns to appear in the MCU? Nerdist sat down for an interview Stanford, and his answer to that question is yes… and no. While in Deadpool & Wolverine, Pyro’s costume will be inspired by Marvel Comics’ Ultimate X-Men version of Pyro, the heart of the character will remain with the X-Men movie incarnation.
Pyro’s Costume Draws Inspiration from Marvel Comics’ Ultimate X-Men in Deadpool & Wolverine
When asked if the MCU will be pulling from any specific Marvel Comics stories for Pyro in Deadpool and & Wolverine, here’s what Stanford had to say:
They are. For Pyro’s costume in particular, Deadpool & Wolverine took from, I think it’s called Ultimate X-Men, I think it’s the Pyro in the Ultimate Marvel Comics series, where he has a very specific look, and they replicated the costume that version of Pyro has. But not the rest of him because that version of Pyro is really interesting. He’s a madman, and he’s horribly burned over his entire body from all the fire that he’s been playing with for his entire life. But yeah, so I think they drew upon that.
So [Deadpool & Wolverine] is sort of an amalgam of the look from that run from that universe and then what they created [for Pyro] in the X-Men movies. And you’re correct; those were a bit different from the original Marvel Comics. Not only he’s a full grown adult, but he’s Australian, and he is, of all things, a gothic romance novelist, which is absolutely fascinating. And I wish they had delved into that at some point.
We’ll be excited to see some of Marvel Comics’ Pyro come to life in Deadpool & Wolverine. Ultimate X-Men exists as a separate Marvel Comics continuity introduced in 2007 by Robert Kirkman. In this world, Pyro was a member of the Morlocks, who were sewer-dwelling mutants. As Stanford points out, Ultimate X-Men Pyro has a body covered in burn scars from his constant exposure to fire. However, it doesn’t sound like the MCU will draw from this Marvel Comics’ storyline for Pyro’s narrative arc—but instead, stick to homaging his look in it.
The X-Men Movies Never Really Used Marvel Comics for Inspiration When It Came to Pyro
In addition to talking about Marvel Comics’ inspirations in his Deadpool & Wolverine turn, Stanford also discussed with us the specific lack of them in the original X-Men movies. He noted that though he looked, he didn’t readily find X2 and X3 Pyro in the comics. Stanford shared:
I really wasn’t [taking inspiration from Marvel Comics for X-Men‘s Pyro] because at that stage, all the source material they gave me, it was real old school stuff, and the stuff that I read, anyway, the stuff that I was aware of, that was on my radar, it didn’t have a lot of that backstory. Again, it did have that interesting, weird, he’s a romance novelist stuff, which was just like, I was like, wow, that’s not what I expected. But no, there definitely was a break from the comics. And I think that was, again, because they wanted to tell this story that took place in this school and the small grouping of Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro; they really wanted to tell it from a younger perspective. And that younger version of Pyro didn’t exist in the comics, so a lot of it had to sort of be made up.
Now that Pyro is older and wiser in Deadpool & Wolverine, it will be interesting to see if anything beyond his Ultimate X-Men costume filters through from the pages of Marvel Comics to the screen. We’ll tune in to find out on July 26, when Deadpool & Wolverine releases in theaters. And make sure to check back with Nerdist later this week to read our full interview with Aaron Stanford.