Killing Off X-Force
While Deadpool received a phenomenal response from fans and critics, there were reports that Deadpool 2‘s test screenings hadn’t fared too well.
According to former IGN editor Jeremy Conrad, one of the reasons for the response was the treatment of the X-Force. In the version of the film screened for test audiences, all the members of the team died – bar Domino and Deadpool – when they jumped out of the plane. X-Force ended up being a gag, in other words, and fans weren’t happy about it.
While it’s too early to reveal if that made it into the final cut of the film, it would be disappointing if the first way these mutants were introduced was as a joke. Sure, due to time travel, they can always be rescued and their deaths undone, but it would cheapen the impact of the characters. First impressions and all that jazz.
Don’t get us wrong here. The X-Force is an over-the-top group, with excessive violence and laughable costumes (with tons of pouches), so they’re the perfect complement for Deadpool. But if their first introduction is to be killed off, then we fear for the legitimacy of this team in their own solo outing.
That said, the film did undergo reshoots, which likely “fixed” any negative reaction. After all, Brianna Hildebrand, who plays Negasonic Teenage Warhead, said there should be no cause for concern:
“No, it was nothing that had gone wrong. I think it’s a common misconception too – that people think that reshoots are to fix things that people didn’t like. A lot of the time, reshoots are to add more of the things that people loved. [Filmmakers] watch their films again and are like “better fix that”. I don’t know how much I can say about that. Usually films hate it when you talk about their reshoots – solely because people think that it’s because the film was bad for the test audience – but it was all good.”
