Free Guy cameo: Shawn Levy explains how Ryan Reynolds pulled it off

Spoilers for Free Guy. Consider yourself warned. Shawn Levy’s delightfully entertaining action comedy set in a video-game world was finally released last week after a lengthy pandemic delay, and it was well worth the wait. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as a bank teller who discovers that he’s actually an NPC in an open-world videogame and decides to become the hero of his own story. Free Guy is full of plenty of stand-out moments, including a few cameos that came as big surprises for audiences.

While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Free Guy director Shawn Levy explained how the biggest Free Guy cameo came to be. Remember those spoilers I mentioned above? Here they come. During a climactic battle with Dude, Ryan Reynolds’ Blue Shirt Guy uses a power-up that allows him to use Captain America’s shield. This prompts a quick cutaway to none other than Chis Evans himself, who exclaims “What the shit!” while watching the event on his phone. Shawn Levy said that Ryan Reynolds used his movie star power to get Chris Evans to make a cameo in the film.

Ryan was like, “Wait a second, Chris Evans is in the same town we are shooting his Apple show, Defending Jacob. I’m going to text him and ask him if he’ll come by and be in the movie.” I guess that’s a thing movie stars do. “Hi, movie star. I’m your fellow movie star. Want to come be in my movie?” Chris Evans, being a cool, good guy, was like, “If I can come by and literally be in and out in 10 minutes, I think I can slip it in.” So, that’s what happened. That’s how we ended up with Chris Evans, in addition to a lightsaber and a Hulk fist and Cap’s shield.

Although Free Guy began life as a 20th Century Fox film, it soon fell under the umbrella of Disney. Shawn Levy told ET that the acquisition happened right before they started filming, which enabled them to gain access to all the various Disney goodies. “Once we realized wait, Disney now owns the studio that owns our movie, we were like, well shoot, they have the greatest toy chest around!” Levy said. “And if I were Guy and if I could gather any piece of weaponry that I ever dreamed of, it would definitely include a lightsaber. It would absolutely include Cap’s shield. So, we wrote a letter to Disney and said, ‘Hello, I am Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy. We are making Free Guy, as you know. You now own us. Can we please use one of these fancy iconic devices?’ And we got a response and the answer was, ‘Yes.’ And we sent an email back saying, ‘Sorry. To clarify, which one?’ And we got an email back saying, ‘All of them. You can have all of them.’ We were beyond stoked.“

In addition to Ryan Reynolds, Free Guy also stars Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi, Camille Kostek, and more. Free Guy is now playing in theaters, so check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray and let us know what you thought of the film as well.