"X-Men" Actor Aaron Stanford Returns as Pyro after 18 Years in "Deadpool 3"

Marvel fans are expecting a ton of mind-blowing cameos in Ryan Reynolds’ highly-anticipated movie “Deadpool and Wolverine,” but one returning X-Men actor has already been revealed: Aaron Stanford as Pyro. 

The actor popped up in the official “Deadpool and Wolverine” trailer, much to the delight of fans. 

Stanford debuted as John Allerdyce, aka the mutant Pyro, in 2003’s “X2: X-Men United” and reprised the role in 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand", and he's now back after an 18-year break and is “Very happy” with the results.

“I was just very happy to even have a costume,” Stanford said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “In the original ‘X-Men’ films, Pyro gets really shortchanged in terms of a costume.”

“In ‘X2,’ we start off with Pyro in Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants,” he explained. “The SWAT team bursts in in the middle of the night and we have to flee. So for half the movie, I’m in my jammies. I never got the cool leather, tactical suit that all the X-Men wear. And in ‘X3,’ I was just dressed in an ensemble from Hot Topic, basically. So to have him be in a proper superhero costume that was actually taken from the comics themselves was very cool.”

“Deadpool and Wolverine” director Shawn Levy told the outlet that there are lots of cameos in the movie, stressing that the team behind the Marvel tentpole “didn’t want any of the cameos or characters to be the story of the movie. But they are peppered in throughout.”

Joining Stanford as a returning X-Men in the pic is Tyler Mane, who played Sabretooth in the 2000 X-Men movie, battling Wolverine in a snowy forest.

“There’s a lot of characters,” he added. “The internet is a delight of rumors about the multitude of character cameos that are in this movie. Some rumors are true, some are way off base.”

"Deadpool 3" has been in development for years but suffered a setback by the 2019 Disney/Fox merger and further delay by the SAG-AFTRA strike last year.

It marks the first Marvel Studios project to use characters now available to it after Disney purchased 21st Century Fox, which gave Marvel access to mutants, including “Deadpool”, “The X-Men”, and “The Fantastic Four”.

The franchise is the top-grossing X-Men movies of all time, with 2016’s "Deadpool" and 2018’s follow-up “Deadpool 2” huge box office, earning over $1.5 billion worldwide. The two previous “Deadpool” movies, along with the entire “X-Men” franchise, were owned and released by Fox before the $71.3 billion acquisition.

After the acquisition, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige quickly confirmed the franchise as a keeper for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

“Deadpool 3” will be the first R-rated movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also marks the first Deadpool movie in which Marvel will work hand in hand with Ryan Reynolds and Team Deadpool.

Levy is on board to direct with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese returning to pen the threequel. Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin penned a previous draft. Marvel Studios boss joins Reynolds and Levy as producers.

Reynolds and Levy previously collaborated on the Reynolds hit comedy movie "Free Guy" and Netflix's "The Adam Project".

The latest “Deadpool” movie will be a reunion for Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who previously starred together in 2009’s ill-fated “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Now, the threequel will bring Deadpool and Wolverine together — even though the iconic X-Men hero died at the end of 2017’s “Logan”. But characters have a way of returning from the dead in superhero movies, especially with the universe-bending rules of the MCU’s multiverse.

“Deadpool 3” also features Jennifer Garner reprising her role as the sai-wielding superhero Elektra, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Karan Soni as Dopinder, and Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen will also star in the upcoming movie.

Set to hit theaters on July 26, the pic will run for 127 minutes, or 2 hours and 7 minutes. This would make "Deadpool & Wolverine" the longest movie in the Deadpool franchise to date. The original Deadpool (2016) had a runtime of 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes), while its 2018 sequel, Deadpool 2, clocked in at 119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes).

Despite crossing the two-hour mark, "Deadpool & Wolverine" falls short of being the longest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). That feat belongs to 2019's "Avengers: Endgame", which boasts an epic runtime of 3 hours and 1 minute.

The second-longest MCU film to date is 2022's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", at 2 hours and 41 minutes. Rounding out the MCU's longest films are "Eternals" (2 hours, 36 minutes), "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2 hours, 29 minutes), and "Avengers: Infinity War" (2 hours, 29 minutes).