Everything You Need To Know About Deadpool

The Deadpool We Deserve

While the Deadpool conversation really seemed to pick up pace in 2009 with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it didn’t begin to coalesce until 2011, when VFX artist Tim Miller clambered aboard the struggling project. It has long since passed into film legend that actor Ryan Reynolds consistently championed the Deadpool character as a lead in his own movie, but the arrival of Miller led to the creation of test footage in 2012, which was leaked onto social media in 2014.

Fandom seized upon it, and 20th Century Fox were, evidently, suitably convinced of the demand for a movie. Thus, Deadpool was officially announced, and there was joy throughout the land. Unsurprisingly, given its agonisingly slow development phase, the production seemed to come together relatively swiftly, once the greenlight was received.

So, what can we expect to see? Well, a superhero movie unlike any other, rated an ‘R’ of the hardest kind. The inventive and ingenious marketing campaign waged by actor Ryan Reynolds during the 12 months preceding the release of Deadpool has given us many clues as to the scope of the project and, while there will undoubtedly be surprises, we can also assume some things.

Far from being a merc with his mouth sewn shut, this Deadpool will be his infamously chatty self once more. He will break the fourth wall in all the ways we would like him to, and he will be exactly as unstable and unpredictable as we hoped he would be. But, he will also have a strong cast of supporting characters.

We will see the girlfriend of Wade Wilson – Vanessa – played by Morena Baccarin. In the source material, Vanessa is Vanessa Geraldine Carlysle, also known as the shape-shifting mutant, Copycat. We will also see Weasel (also known as Jack Hammer), played by T.J Miller. Weasel is a young man who went to the same high school as Peter Parker, and was destined for employment by the villainous Norman Osborn, until Deadpool altered his history and he became a criminal weapons dealer instead. He is also Deadpool’s closest friend.

His arch-nemesis, Ajax, will feature, played by Ed Skrein. Angel Dust – also known as Christine, and played by Gina Carano – will play a large part as an enforcer for Ajax. Angel Dust is, herself, a mutant who can increase her adrenaline flow and temporarily give herself super-human strength. We will also see Negasonic Teenage Warhead – also known as Ellie Phimister, and played by Brianna Hildebrand. She is a telepath with precognition abilities, and is known in the comic books as the student of Emma Frost, who featured in X-Men: First Class (played by January Jones).

Colossus – also known as Piotr Nikolaievitch, played by Stefan Kapicic – will also appear, as the character has done in X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days Of Future Past. He is a Russian mutant who can transform himself into a metal creature and is physically the strongest of the X-Men.

Finally, and most intriguingly, we will see the character of Blind Al, played by Leslie Uggams. In the comic books, she is a somewhat mysterious, elderly character, who appears to be a housemate of Deadpool, but is also sometimes shown to be his prisoner. Various attempts have been made to explain her identity over the years, the most consistent being that she is a former agent of British Intelligence, and Deadpool once spared her life, but kept her in captivity. He is, on occasion, seen to abuse her verbally, and by locking her in a small space. Their dynamic is as uneven as Deadpool’s mental state, however, and she is also shown to be one of his closest confidantes, whose counsel he often seeks.

Her presence in the movie is reassuring, although it is, as yet, unclear how faithful the rendering of this bizarre association will be. The character of Blind Al is an important one, however, as she provides a window onto the inner machinations of the Deadpool character. But, whichever strategy director Tim Miller and his team use to depict the character of Blind Al, we can rest assured that this rebooted Deadpool is likely to be exactly the Deadpool we deserve.