Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy was well worth the wait, as the movie finally released after delays stretching back to 2019. The story of Guy, a nonplayable character in a video game, achieving sentience might sound cheesy but the multitude of references and Easter eggs highlighted the movie’s larger than life presentation.
Free Guy brought in more than several celebrities comprising actors and YouTube personalities to build up the hype of Guy’s exploits in the game, which were all placed in such a way that viewers were treated to surprise cameos. Some were more memorable than others and it’s worth taking a recap of everyone from Hugh Jackman to Chris Evans and see who had the most appearance.
John Krasinski
John Krasinski’s cameo is perhaps the one that can be most easily overlooked as he never appears in person. Instead, his role is of a silhouette gamer who remains in the shadows while commenting on the impact Guy has made during his heroics.
Krasinski is a natural comedian, and although keeping him in the dark might seem like misfire on the movie’s part, the joke lies in the fact that discovering it’s Krasinski is what makes his appearance funny. It adds in a level of "replay value" as well as those who missed his cameo will go back and check it out once again.
Alex Trebek
The late Alex Trebek makes a posthumous appearance in Free Guy as the movie was filmed back in 2019. As fans would expect, he shows up in a segment dedicated to Jeopardy! where he plays himself, although it’s no doubt memorable.
The entertaining aspect of this cameo is the hilarity of the sequence where Guy becomes popular, as Trebek appears out of nowhere for a segment acknowledging the “Blue Shirt Guy” who has taken the world by storm. There's also the real-world fact of him being Canadian, just like Ryan Reynolds, which makes his appearance all the more appropriate.
The Rock
The Rock seems to have appeared to repay the favor from Ryan Reynolds’ surprise cameo in Hobbs & Shaw. He doesn’t appear in person, though, and audiences would need to keep their ears sharp to realize that The Rock was the avatar of one of the bank robber characters.
This cameo stands out well mainly because The Rock’s voice is unusually lost and confused, as Guy’s sudden attack on him in the bank robbery leads to the character bumbling out his words. It’s a worthy change from the norm of seeing the actor in tough guy roles and in an awkwardly comedic light. Additionally, Jumanji is one of the movies fans should watch before Free Guy due to the shared video game setting.
Tina Fey
The real identity of Revenjamin Buttons is shown having constant arguments with his mom in the background who doesn’t fully appear in front of the camera. However, she has more than a few well-timed jabs at her slack son’s expense, which will feel very fitting for those who realize that this was Tina Fey.
The “Vaccuming Mom” character is perfect for Fey to put her gamer son in his place, as she shuts him down by pointing out that he has to listen to her since he’s a grown man living in her house. Her appearance ends up being one of the moments that will get belly laughs out of viewers.
Hugh Jackman
There are no shortages of smart characters in Free Guy when it comes to seasoned gamers, and Hugh Jackman appears in the opening as one of these. The role is of a masked avatar whom Millie approaches for information on Antwan but he doesn’t know when to shut up.
The cameo is largely hilarious due to the “rivalry” between Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, which had earlier seen Reynolds claim Jackman kept ignoring his requests to star in a film together. Jackman’s voiceover is memorable on its own as well, as he brings a blend of fake bravado and an annoying quality in his character. Of course, this eventually leads to him getting shot by Millie for asking too many questions.
The YouTube Personalities
The movie is self-aware in that it acknowledges that there are YouTubers with millions of subscribers who boost the popularity of games like Free City. To this end, numerous YouTube personalities show up in Free Guy as fictional versions of themselves in the movie’s real-world.
These include the likes of Jacksepticeye, Ninja, Pokimane, DanTDM, and LazarBeam, with all of them reacting to Guy’s ascent as a hero. The YouTubers are used to perfection as they act as the audience surrogate as well as bring in a level of legitimacy as their streams are just as they would be if Free Guy was actually real.
Chris Evans
Although fans might have to check out where they’ve seen the Free Guy cast before for some of the actors, there’s no mistaking Chris Evans when he shows up. He’s there basically just for a second’s worth of an appearance, yet it’s among the absolute best cameos.
This comes down to the timing of his cameo as it follows immediately after Guy uses Captain America’s shield in his fight against Dude. There couldn’t have been any greater reaction than the man who played Steve Rogers himself, and Evans is shown exclaiming with surprise as soon as the shield appears in Guy’s hands as if it was stolen from him.
Channing Tatum
Out of all the celebrity appearances in the movie, Channing Tatum is the actor who stuck around the longest. As the avatar known as Revenjamin Buttons, he’s shown to be extremely proficient in the game and is built up as a potential challenge for Guy to extort the information against Antwan.
However, in a massive swerve, Revenjamin Buttons turns out to be a fanboy of Guy, and Tatum acts like a total goof for a good few minutes getting excessively hyped over Guy. This over-the-top attitude references his appearances in comedies like 21 Jump Street and Kingsman. All things considered, Tatum appears to have put in the most effort to make his cameo funny, which pays off in hilarious ways.