How Pete Davidson Wound Up in the Summers Biggest Blockbusters

Publish date: 2024-07-27

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “Fast X” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, which are now playing in theaters.

Louis Leterrier’s “Fast X” drives into movie theaters this weekend, delivering plenty of action and a few surprise cameos.

As previously revealed, the film’s credit scenes mark the return of Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs and Gal Gadot’s Gisele. The third cameo is none other than Pete Davidson, who plays Bowie.

Davidson’s cameo comes after the “Fast” fam — Dom (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Han (Sung Kang), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) — head to Rome on a mission led by Roman (Tyrese Gibson). Turns out, they’ve been lured into a trap set by Jason Momoa’s badass Dante, who wants revenge on the crew and threatens to get it by blowing up the Vatican.

Popular on Variety

Related Stories

Photo illustration of a robot's hand holding a magnifying glass VIP+

Cloud Adoption Key to Media Business Exploiting AI

abby-phillip-CNN-newsnight

Abby Phillip's Wild Primetime 'NewsNight' Shows CNN Working for TV Boost

Following the Rome disaster, Ramsey, Han, Tej and Roman escape to London in an effort to get their money back — Dante has wiped millions from their bank accounts — and go off the grid.

That’s when Davidson’s Bowie appears.

Bowie runs a divey internet cafe in East London — what better front for a black market outfit? — and is a friend of Ramsey’s from another life. But as the London team try to convince him to help buy some gear to protect themselves, Tej and Roman get into a squabble and Han realizes he’s high on Bowie’s pot muffins and beginning to hallucinate. It all comes to a head when they realize Bowie has reported them to the Agency — the covert organization for which they’ve “freelanced” as super-spies since “Furious 7” — and they have minutes to get out before getting caught. Ramsey punches Bowie and they leave to go find Shaw (Jason Statham).

Davidson fans likely won’t be surprised to see him in the movie — though they might be a little confused — given that his Peacock series “Bupkis,” which presents an absurdist and surreal version of the “SNL” breakout’s life, has a whole episode inspired by his involvement in the “Fast” franchise.

“So, they are pulling the offer on the ‘Fast and the Furious,'” Pete’s exasperated agent (played by “NCIS: LA” star Chris O’Donnell), tells him at the beginning of “Crispytown,” the show’s fourth episode.

Why? Because he was photographed doing whippets at the White House Correspondents Dinner. “It was with the Avengers, like two of them. … Cool ones, from the first movie,” Pete argues. The only way to fix the problem is to perform at Diesel’s daughter’s birthday party in Miami.

Naturally, the episode morphs into a “Fast and Furious” style action-flick, with Pete and a sleazeball named Crispy (Simon Rex) getting into a high-speed car chase at its climax. (Let’s presume he got his job back, shall we?)

In addition to his cameo in “Fast X,” Davidson also pops up in James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” playing an alien named Phlektik.

Because Davidson’s costume concealed his identity, it was relatively easy to keep his Marvel debut under wraps, but Gunn confirmed the cameo after fans spotted his name in the credits.

Gunn tweeted, “Pete not only voiced but actually came to visit us in Atlanta for a day and played Phlektik on set,” along with photos of the actor and comedian in costume.

I voiced the beautiful Lambshank. I don't want to show her here because she's too gorgeous & I don't want folks to feel bad about themselves in comparison. And my friend Pete not only voiced but actually came to visit us in Atlanta for a day and played Phlektik on set. https://t.co/tyVPU7GsZg pic.twitter.com/2cKamjHqxS

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 7, 2023

“Guardians” marked the second time Gunn enlisted him for one of his films. Davidson played the anti-hero Blackguard in 2021’s “The Suicide Squad” — albeit briefly, because his face gets blown off in the movie’s opening sequence.

Next up, Davidson stars in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which hits theaters on June 9. He voices Mirage, the movie’s central Transformer, an Autobot who teams up with Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback) in the latest battle for Earth. “He’s kind of like the rebellious Autobot,” director Steven Caple Jr. has said of the character.

This fall, Davidson will appear in “Dumb Money,” about the January 2021 GameStop stock market explosion. Based on the nonfiction book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, Davidson is part of a star-studded cast led by Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Sebastian Stan. Sony unveiled the first footage from the movie last month at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXN%2Fjp%2BgpaVfo7K4v46fmKysXa16sbHTnmSdmaaesbS7zWaamqWVpHqowcCrm6KZnqh6sLKMrZ%2BeZZeWuaLE2GZoa2tla354gJdsZg%3D%3D