10 years later, Deadpool’s Karan Soni reveals his proudest MCU moment

According to actor Karan Soni, who joins Polygon via Zoom to commemorate Deadpool’s 10th anniversary, that kill in Deadpool 2 was his crowning achievement in the Deadpool franchise. As he explains below, Dopinder begins as an innocent civilian at the beginning of Deadpool when the Merc with a Mouth first enters his cab, but Deadpool gradually corrupts him. By the end of the first movie, Dopinder had kidnapped his cousin for loving the same woman he did, so it was only natural for him to be a killer by the end of Deadpool 2.

“I had just, in my own quiet way, been like, All I really want for the sequel is I want to kill someone,” Soni recalls.

That character evolution — or de-evolution — is what Soni discusses here, as well as his cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, his memories of sharing the screen with Ryan Reynolds and Josh Brolin, and his future goals for Dopinder in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What was the casting process like for Deadpool?

We shot it in 2015, so I probably went in for it at the end of 2014. It was very lock-and-key. The movie was called something else so I didn’t know what it was for, and I wasn’t familiar with the comic book. I had no expectations. That same day, I had a callback for a TV show with Patrick Stewart, so my entire focus was on trying to get that job because it was a steady job and I don’t know what this random movie was. I just did the audition in person once and then walked out of there. Then maybe four or five months went by and I got a call from my manager saying, “You got this movie Deadpool.” I remember thinking he meant Daredevil.

He also said, “They won’t send the script, but you can go to the casting office to read the script if you want to know if you want to do it or not.” I remember driving to the casting office and I read the script in person, and it was one of the best, funniest scripts I’d ever read. I wasn’t familiar with the comics. So to me, the concept of breaking the fourth wall felt original and new. I loved the character of Dopinder. It was so funny to have this character who was so innocent, but so ready to be corrupted. I knew how to play that. And, it was going to be with Ryan Reynolds, and that was really exciting.

Image: 20th Century Fox

What was he like to work with?

I never met Ryan beforehand. I never auditioned with him or anything. We met for the first time to do the scene from the movie. They just threw us right in there, and then we were shooting on this real Vancouver freeway, the Georgia Viaduct. They had closed it down, so there was this very tight amount of time in which you had to shoot before rush hour started because then we had to leave the freeway. Everything was so rushed. They just threw us in this car and then the cameras were already there. There was no rehearsal, they were like, “Okay, just start acting.”

I remember being so starstruck by Ryan. He has such a movie star presence, and I immediately was so intimidated. Then we just got into it, and we improvised a little bit here and there, but it was all kind of a blur.

That was the first day and there was no practice, there was no nothing. We just got right into it. The first movie was very low budget for that genre and we felt that. You really felt like there was no time and everything was fast and quick and rushed. It all felt very scary and intimidating.

Dopinder is a character original to the movies. Can you talk about his development?

I think it’s all Ryan and the writers’ (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) idea. The character was not in every version of the script. Then, at some certain point, many years into the development, they had this idea to add him. I think Ryan just enjoyed the dynamic.

Then we were doing this second one, which was really fun because they were like, “Oh, we see what this chemistry is and we can expand on it. ” In the first movie, he kidnaps this person, but it’s unclear what happens. So I told the writers, “I want a full-out Deadpool kill.” I think they listened because, in the second one, when I got to kill the headmaster, it was really fun.

When did you tell the writers you wanted to kill somebody?

This was after the first movie, and we knew there was going to be a second one. I started spending more time with the writers. Then one of the writers, Rhett, got married, and I remember at his wedding being like, “I know I’m not allowed to ask, but if I could, that’s my only bucket list thing, if I could get to kill someone,” and then they were like, “Maybe, maybe.”

And you got to kill a major character too!

Yeah, the second one was such a fun experience because we had more money, so it felt a little bit more relaxed. I also felt a little bit less of that impostor syndrome, and I was slightly less intimidated than I was the first time.

Is there anything memorable for you about the scenes where you drive the other heroes around, like Colossus in the first one or Cable in the second movie?

In the second one, I was very intimidated to work with Josh Brolin because he’s an icon, but I loved him so much. We got along really well. He was my favorite person to interact with on the second one. He just has lived such an interesting life. And it was really funny because he was on a very strict diet for the second one and he kept living vicariously through me. I would eat snacks on his behalf, which he couldn’t eat, and describe them to him. I thought he would be this very alpha, aggressive person, but he’s just a teddy bear in many ways.

Image: 20th Century Fox

What’s it like being the only character on screen who isn’t a superhero?

It’s really fun because to me, the character, in some ways, is the audience surrogate. And I’ll be completely honest, when I see the other actors, like Josh, and they have to go through this whole workout program and there’s this food thing, it looks horrible. Ryan is very disciplined. He would get this little Ziploc bag of steamed broccoli and chicken that looked completely flavorless, and he’s just eating, he’s a machine. But I would be more like Josh, who missed food and missed things. It looks so miserable, that I was like, “Okay, this is fine. I don’t need to envy the heroes.”

Do you think Deadpool corrupted Dopinder or was that darkness always there?

I think it was always there, but I think it wouldn’t have been unlocked if it wasn’t for Deadpool. I think he needed him to unlock it.

Is there anything you’d like to say about Deadpool & Wolverine? I know your role was much smaller there.

The third one felt so different from my perspective because it was shot in London. That was weird because Deadpool and Deadpool 2 were so tied with Vancouver, and Ryan is from Vancouver. When we shot the first one, when I went to immigration to get my work permit, they literally saw the name of the project and they were so proud because they were like, “Ryan’s a hometown boy!” Everywhere you went, people were like, “We’re so happy Deadpool is shooting here!”

So with the third one being in London, it felt like doing something very different. But what was cool about the third one was seeing Shawn Levy and Ryan work together. I think it was their third movie together at that point and it was really cool to see a director and Ryan’s creative force come together in this way because they were almost finishing each other’s sentences. The other thing that was really cool was to be in the presence of Hugh Jackman for a day.

Did you feel left out of the third one at all?

Yeah, it was a little bit bittersweet, but at the same time, I knew Ryan had very briefly sent little hints when we were doing the second one that, in a dream world, he would want to do a Deadpool and Wolverine movie. So I was just so happy for him.

You get a great nickname in the second one, “Brown Panther.”

Ryan does a lot of ADR, and he will change the lines as he’s writing jokes and stuff later. If I remember correctly, Black Panther came out after we had finished filming and on the day of filming he never said that line. Then, when he went for the ADR and was coming up with different alts because he can just say whatever under the mask. I remember at the premiere that line got such a huge response.

So your goal leading into part two was for Dopinder to kill somebody. Do you have any other aspirations for this character in future installments?

I would love to work with Hugh in the future version. That would be kind of cool if that can happen. Then I would like for the character’s love life to be explored more. It was a little bit in the first one, and I love Deadpool giving bad dating advice.