Colossus Actor Says 'Expect Everything' in Deadpool 2

You might not yet know Stefan Kapicic's name, but you'd definitely recognize his thunderstorm of a voice, which he lent to the towering, metal mutant Colossus in the 2016 superhero hit Deadpool. With his low grumble and jovial tone, the German-born Serbian actor proved a perfect straight man to push back against Ryan Reynold's manic jester, and at Comic-Con International in San Diego, CBR sat down with Kapicic to talk all things Deadpool, and try to squeeze out some details on Deadpool 2.

The curious thing about Kapicic's involvement in the first film is that he never spent a day on set. Instead, a double who measures in at six-foot-eleven, or seven-foot-even stood opposite star Ryan Reynolds, barreling through fight scenes with "some hat on and some huge shoes and some ping-pong ball to become, like, seven-five." Kapicic was actually cast after shooting had wrapped, when he was auditioned to give this friendly behemoth the appropriate voice in a final audition lasted nine hours. NINE. HOURS.

"It was crazy, because I was doing a performance in Croatia," Kapicic explained, stressing that he is chiefly a theater actor. "I was doing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." He had a three day break between performances when Fox called. "They said, 'You need to come here and to meet the director and do test shooting.'" So off he went on a 16-hour flight from Croatia to Los Angeles. Because Fox was being super secretive about Deadpool, Kapicic wasn't even told what movie he was auditioning for. "Everything was hush hush." Still, when he walked in and saw director Tim Miller, the pieces fell into place, and he knew this was his chance to play a superhero -- this was about playing Colossus.

Kapicic was told to block out four hours for the audition. "But you know, when you click with a director as I clicked with Tim that day -- that's why we continued. We passed testing options, we started working on a character."

From there, it was a breeze to actually bring life to the mighty X-man. The tough part was keeping it a secret; because his casting hadn't been announced, Kapicic wasn't allowed to tell anyone of his role in Deadpool for six months. "So you know, I was listening to people asking me, 'Why are you going to Los Angeles?' And I'm like, 'You know, working on some movie.' And they're like, 'Which movie?' And I was going like, 'Wham,' because that was the working title, Wham. And like, 'Is it like George Michael kind of thing?' I was like, "Well, no."

But all the waiting and secrecy paid off big when Deadpool opened, thrilling fans and pulling in $783,112,979 to become the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. At Comic-Con, Kapicic remains largely unrecognized, because while he is an intimidating 6'5," he's not obviously Colossus. But he's fine with the relative anonymity as it's afforded him a bit of privacy to marvel at the cosplayers. "Every third person is Deadpool, or something related," he chuckled.

As warm and enthusiastic as he was about his character, Kapicic was deeply reluctant to talk about Deadpool 2. "I hate spoilers," he explained, noting as well that he'd signed a contract promising he'd leak no secrets. Still, we persisted, touching on details that are already out there, like Negasonic Teenage Warhead's new look and Julian Dennison's casting. Still, Kapicic was steely in his resolve. Will he be playing the role of Colossus physically this time? He wouldn't say. Will Colossus have a bigger role in the sequel? Or a new look? He wouldn't say.

Kapicic did promise, however, that Deadpool 2 "is going to be funny as hell, and brilliant." He added, "And there are going to be, like, huge surprises. That's the thing that I can say. And I know that this will be a new, totally -- how to say that? -- a level-up from Deadpool, in many ways. Totally, everything, times five."

Asked if the sequel would mash-up genres as the first film did, he answered, "The thing that is part of Deadpool, is that Deadpool is the genre for itself. He combines everything and it works. So with Deadpool comes, of course, a mix of genres, which is beautiful, that that cannot be a problem, that that works."

Considering the popularity of a fan-made musical parody, could we see Deadpool sing and dance? Kapicic said, "Well, you can really expect everything. And, honestly? You can expect unexpected with Deadpool."

Directed by David Leitch (John Wick), Deadpool 2 is filming in Vancouver, British Columbia. Premiering June 1, 2018, the sequel will see the return of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable, Julian Dennison in an unknown role, and Jack Kesy as a villain widely thought to be Black Tom Cassidy.