After making an auspicious debut on HBO’s Game of Thrones, Ed Skrein is fast cementing his grip on the big screen, with roles as the lead in this fall’s The Transporter: Refueled and Ajax in next year’s Deadpool.
Recently, talking to MTV News, Skrein shed some light on the approach he’s taking to Ajax, one of the many villains the Merc with the Mouth will be facing off against.
“I think the rest of the world sees him as a bad guy. Me, I think he’s just misunderstood. His name is Ajax; or Francis. He went through the same Weapon X programme as Wolverine and Deadpool,” he said, confirming that his mutant has ties to the X-Men universe.
Skrein went on to talk about Ajax’s troubling powers:
“His superpowers are that he feels nothing. He feels no pain, but also psychologically what’s interesting is that there’s huge parts of his mind which is missing. The social responsibilities and all those things, so it’s a very interesting character. He really doesn’t feel that much, so I suppose he’s a sociopath in the truest sense.”
Gavin Hood’s execrable X-Men Origins: Wolverine is obviously not canon in Deadpool now that the titular antihero has been reimagined so drastically from the way he appeared in that film. As such, a flashback as to Deadpool and Ajax’s origins might be the only logical time to include a Wolverine cameo, which has been rumored but not confirmed for a long while.
Skrein spoke separately to IGN about the dynamic between Ajax and Deadpool:
“It’s a great relationship Ajax and Deadpool have – it’s a wonderful dynamic. A lot of the time we talked in terms of the great boxers: Muhammad Ali and George Foreman or Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. Muhammad Ali is dancing around, whispering in his ear, trying to get to him, get under his skin, which is what Wade Wilson (Deadpool) and Ryan do so brilliantly. Ajax is that juggernaut, just like Joe Frazier, just focussed on this job and hunting him down and pounding away, like a bulldozer.”
The actor also expressed his enthusiasm for playing the villain across multiple films:
“The possibilities are endless in the wonderful world of Marvel. That’s what so exciting. Again, without sounding boring, I’m not looking beyond this movie. It’s just such a pleasure to have been in this movie. If this is the last time I played Ajax, I would be so happy with it. If we made another 10 movies with Ajax, I would be so happy with. It’s just an honour to have got to played him for the first and I’m so happy with what we’ve achieved so far.”
Deadpool opens February 12.
