If you were to compile a list of the most popular cartoons based on Marvel Comics characters, X-Men: The Animated Series would appear high on that list. The five-season show, which debuted back in 1992, was a huge hit with audiences and remains popular to this day.
Now, if you were to make a list of the most popular Marvel characters of all time, the mutant, Deadpool would also rank high on its respective list. Introduced into the comics back in 1991, Deadpool is a fan-favourite character who is known by comic book readers and non-comic book readers alike.
So, based on the above information, you’d naturally assume that Deadpool would have been front and centre in X-Men: The Animated Series. Or, at the very least, he would have been a regular guest star.
But was either of these things true? Was Deadpool a main character or a guest star in X-Men: The Animated Series? Well, the answer might surprise you.
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Was Deadpool in X-Men: The Animated Series?
Deadpool was not a main character in X-Men: The Animated Series, nor was he a semi-regular player or a guest star. At the most, Deadpool received a couple of very, very minor cameos in the show, and in every case it wasn’t actually Deadpool but a vision or an image of the character instead.
He first appears as a vision in Sabretooth’s mind in the Season One episode, Deadly Reunions. Deadpool appears amongst a collection of characters which includes the likes of Wolverine, Maverick, and Omega Red.
Deadpool next appears in the Season Two episode, Whatever It Takes, where he pops up courtesy of Morph. During the episode, a mentally fragile Morph transforms into figures from Wolverine’s past to taunt him, and these figures include Deadpool, Omega Red, and Maverick.
Deadpool can also be seen in the Season Three episode, The Phoenix Saga – Part II: The Dark Shroud, when the dark persona of Professor Xavier creates visions of Wolverine’s past to mess with his mind. These visions include a pre-Lady Deathstrike Yuriko, along with Sabretooth, and of course, Deadpool.
Whenever Deadpool appears on screen, it is in some way related to Wolverine, suggesting he is a key figure from Logan’s past. However, the show never elaborated on this, and Deadpool came and went without anyone really noticing.
Comic book fans back during the ’90s knew of Deadpool, so his cameo appearances would raise a smile, but non-comic book fans wouldn’t have had a clue who he was. As far as they were concerned, he was some red guy and nothing more.
Now, this may seem crazy, but there is a reason for Deadpool’s limited appearances, and it’s really quite simple. When X-Men: The Animated Series was in production, between 1992 and 1997, Deadpool wasn’t the iconic Marvel star that he is today.
Deadpool’s early appearances in the comics, from 1991 onward, were few and far between. He also wasn’t quite the wise-talking merc with a mouth that he would later become.
As such, when the creative team were working on X-Men: The Animated Series, Deadpool was not at the top of the priority list to include in the show. The comics provided a wealth of material for the series to adapt, but Deadpool only made up a very small fraction of that material, because there was simply more popular characters to bring to life instead.
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