Deadpool & Wolverine star reveals why "battle" with Chris Evans was cut

The pair face off against each other early in the film, with Pyro quite literally fighting fire and easily staving off an attack from the Human Torch.

But Stanford has revealed that a bigger battle between the pair was scaled down to arrive at the scene we saw in the film, purely because Johnny Storm is the ideal opponent for the fiery X-Men character.

Exclusively chatting to RadioTimes.com, Stanford recalled: "I think the initial idea was for it to be a real struggle, a real battle between two superpowers.

"But, as we were filming, I realised that, for Pyro, it's not a battle because this is what he does, and he has now found himself up against the ideal opponent because it's not a struggle.

"For him, this is the easiest thing in the world. Anybody else he was up against, it would be difficult. But for him, this is like a snap. So we figured out, alright, he should suck all the flame out and then he just winks it out like it's nothing."

That scene was more complicated than it appeared, however, due to the little fact of the SAG-AFTRA strike being announced the day they filmed it - so the scene was shot once before the strike to focus on Evans's parts, with Stanford's being shot months later.

While Stanford's role was confirmed before the film was released, many of the surprise appearances, including Wesley Snipes as Blade and Channing Tatum as Gambit, were kept a secret right up until the film's opening.

Although Marvel is notoriously secretive, cast members were given a full script - something Stanford saw as a mark of respect.

"I was surprised, because they're famously secretive," he pointed out. "Because everyone's trying, constantly, to chisel spoilers out of it, which is so weird to me.

"But no, what was cool was that they gave the full script, which is the right thing to do. It's the respectful thing to do. As actors, you're a part of a story, and if you don't understand what the story is that you're in, you can't do your job properly.

"So I've been in situations where they only give you your lines, or they just give you the one scene, and it's really hard to do your job properly out of context, you just have no idea.

"So they did give the full script, so I had an idea of what the overall story was, and what the tone was, and all the rest of that, which was great."

We see Pyro's demise in the movie at the hands of Emma Corrin's terrifying Cassandra Nova. But, as any Marvel fan knows, especially after the return of Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom, your character's death doesn't mean you're written out of the MCU forever.

"If this was a farewell, it's a good way to go out," Stanford smiles. "I love that they revisited [Pyro] all these years later. And if this is the bookend, that's fantastic.

"But as you know, with the multiverse in the comic books, there's so many different iterations of Pyro and all of these characters.

"There are so many options for alternate stories, alternate realities, so you just really never know. I certainly never expected to get a phone call to be part of Deadpool & Wolverine. So, who knows what the future might bring?"

Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas now.

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