Warning: SPOILERS for Deadpool & Wolverine are ahead!
Iron Man was the first of the Marvel movies in order, and while Robert Downey Jr. rightly gets a lot of credit for its success and helping to launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008, Jon Favreau also played a big role in the production as its director. While Favreau only helmed one of MCU installment after that, Iron Man 2, he’s continued to contribute to the franchise by playing Happy Hogan, who turned out to be one of the big cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. As we come up on two weeks since the threequel’s arrival on the 2024 movies schedule, Ryan Reynolds penned a tribute to Favreau following his brief Deadpool 3 appearance.
The Wade Wilson actor took to his social media accounts, including Instagram, to share some official photos of his and Favreau’s scene together in Deadpool & Wolverine, as well as a behind-the-scenes picture of the two of them with director Shawn Levy, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito. He heaped a lot of praise on the Elf and Chef filmmaker in the post’s caption, which you can read below:
Happy Hogan got looped into the Deadpool & Wolverine proceedings when in 2018, after using Cable’s time travel device to undo Vanessa’s death and make various other changes to Earth-10005’s timeline (as seen in Deadpool 2), Wade somehow made his way over to Earth-616 and tried to join the Avengers. Happy, who handled the interview on Tony Stark’s behalf, felt Wade wasn’t a good fit to be one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and passed on the Merc with the Mouth’s application. Deadpool might not have had the best interaction with Happy, but Ryan Reynolds greatly enjoyed working with Jon Favreau both on camera and talking out ideas behind the scenes.
Reynolds has been on a roll lately complimenting people on social media who made surprise appearances in Deadpool & Wolverine, including Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner, Dafne Keen and Channing Tatum. The former three respectively reprised their roles of Blade, Elektra and Laura/X-23, while Tatum finally got to play Gambit after the character’s spinoff movie was scrapped in 2019 following Disney’s acquisition of Fox. Deadpool 3 marked Jon Favreau’s eighth time playing Happy Hogan, who was previously seen in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is the character’s last chronological appearance.
If/when we’ll see Jon Favreau play Happy Hogan again remains to be seen, though the upcoming Marvel movie Armor Wars and the upcoming Marvel TV show Ironheart seem like good bets given their ties to Tony Stark. Otherwise, use your Disney+ subscription to stream his past Happy appearances, and remember that Favreau is continuing his work in the Star Wars franchise by directing, writing and executive producing 2026’s The Mandalorian & Grogu.
