Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.
The firstDeadpoolfilm introduces Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) as the love of titular mercenary Wade Wilson/Deadpool’s (Ryan Reynolds) life. He can indulge as much as he wants in the anarchist freedom his masked persona affords, but beneath those motormouth quips, how much Reynolds' Wade adores Vanessa is his defining (and redeeming) feature.Deadpool & Wolverine, the franchise’sthird blockbuster installment, cements this truth further; Deadpool traverses the multiverse for love.Deadpool & Wolverinehas aheart as larger-than-life as its predecessors, andit makes a mistake that’s just as familiar — and where superhero tales are concerned, one as old as the medium. The script, penned by Reynolds,Rhett Reese,Paul Wernick,Zeb Wells, and directorShawn Levy, once again fails to humanize Vanessa. Already an oxymoron (theprotagonist’s favorite personand the primary female character, but underutilized and passive), Vanessa’s contributions never extend past motivating Wade. That diminishing choice has always been the franchise’s Achilles heel.It’s a disappointing continuation, especially since Vanessa feels her most directionless and hollow yetinDeadpool & Wolverine. For aMultiverse Saga movieabout the power of love (cueCeline Dion), the opposite should be true.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Wolverine joins the “merc with a mouth” in the third installment of the Deadpool film franchise.
Morena Baccarin’s ‘Deadpool’ Performance Almost Overcomes the Flawed Script
The simplest descriptor for Vanessa is “conundrum.” On paper, her traits inthe originalDeadpool(co-written by Reese and Wernick) boil down toManic Pixie Dream Girl: Deadpool’s Soulmate Edition, with an implicit side order of Not Like Other Girls.She’s sexy and sexual, she’s independent, she’s a nerd, and she’s wittier than the imitable Wade Wilson. The script withholds how much of Vanessa’s tragic backstory is legitimate; she and Wade flirt by lobbying increasingly horrific childhood traumas back-and-forth. Vanessa states in a deleted scene (that’s a telling statement in and of itself) that she’s “worn” many “faces,” which could be truthful, an enticing white lie, or the Occam’s razor answer: a nod toher comic history as a costumed mercenary named Copycat. The outline of a fascinating woman exists here. However, once Wade and Vanessa’s meet cute establishes her as Wade’s ideal match, the information train – such as it is — shrieks to a halt.Her complex pieces never create a substantial wholebeyond the effortlessly gorgeous and cool girlfriend.
Baccarin’s playfully empathetic energy is the character’s saving grace. Vanessa resonates becausethe way Baccarin lights up a room is enjoyable to watch. Be itFireflyorHomeland, her expressions convey hidden depths not present on the page. Likewise,Baccarin’s confident charm makes an imperfect script theoretically fantastic.In 2016, not even the most prominent MCU heroines got to be as simultaneously sexual, stubborn, geeky, and hilarious as Vanessa, not to mention a positive depiction of a sex worker.
Without the Baccarin effect,Deadpoolwould have only one leg (gleefully shattering the fourth wall) on which to stand.The movie embraces its corny essenceto its benefit, grounding theR-rated anticsin a syrupy sweet romance. Baccarin and Reynolds' chemistry sparkles, settling somewhere between steamy and soft, whereas their characters were born to match each other’s freaks to the letter.Give Vanessa enough screentime to match her paramour’s development, and the world would behold a top-tier power couple.
‘Deadpool’ Loses Sight of Its Supporting Characters
Vanessa is the guardian of Wade’s heart and humanity. She punctureshis flippant avoidanceand unearths his yearning for intimacy. That’s her purpose — nothing more.She doesn’t tangibly exist outside of Wade’s feelings or affect the story; the latter barrels her along rather than invite her to participate.Her third act kidnapping is predictableand eye-roll inducing no matter how muchDeadpooltries to Girl Boss-ify Vanessa. Ironically acknowledging a trope in good faith doesn’t absolve its recurring cultural connotations.Deadpoolis determined to give its antiherohis rescue-the-distressed-damsel momentby hook or by crook. Having superpowers shouldn’t be the sole determiner of a female character’s strength; some women can’t rescue themselves.Because comics have victimized women for men’s benefit for decades, however, Vanessa’s lack of agency and interiority matters.
To be fair,origin stories were already stalebyDeadpool’s 2016 debut. Runtime and narrative clarity might have limited what Reese and Wernick could pursue with her character.Even though realizing women characters to their fullest doesn’t ruin a story’s pacing, creative sacrifices and compromises frequently happen during the production process. The screenwriting pair haven’t cited any complications, but they made Vanessa human instead of a shapeshifting mutant so they could,to quote Wernick, “focus entirely on […] Wade Wilson becoming Deadpool.” Reese added, “We thought we could find ways to add a logic to [her gaining superpowers] down the road that we just didn’t feel like we could reasonably do easily and efficiently in this movie.”
Vanessa’s Death in ‘Deadpool 2’ Doesn’t Subvert a Superhero Trope, It Perpetuates It
As the sequel to a box office record-breaker,Deadpool 2has the chance to explore new groundand refresh past missteps. Instead, a criminal murders Vanessa before the opening credits. Legendary comic writerGail Simoneoriginated the terms “women in refrigerators” to describe a pattern male writers had developed:motivating the hero by viciously killing his significant other. Nine times out of ten, thegirlfriend/fiancée/wife’s feelings weren’t relevant. They were disposable action figures snapped in half to further a man’s development. When Vanessa bleeds out in Wade’s arms as he silently screams “no,“it’s not a self-aware genre roasting its tropes, but a notorious error played straight.
I Still Can’t Believe They Got Away With This Moment In ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ doles out an impressive amount of disrespect.
Admittedly,Deadpool 2walks back its worst offense.Wade interrupts the end creditslong enough to travel back in time and prevent Vanessa’s death. By that point, however,his arc has played out to its grief-stricken and guilt-ridden extent. The scenario skews too heavily toward both having one’s cake and eating it. Although preferable to apermanent fridging,Deadpool 2spirals Wade into the most tired and debated trope in the book at Vanessa’s expense, then slaps on a bandage.
To add insult to injury, Vanessa’s presence barely registers despite her murder being top of mind.Deadpool 2’s inciting incident denies her the chance to develop beyond wanting to start a family with Wade, and her death renders that detail moot. When Vanessa lives, she’s an extension of Wade’s domestic heart. After her death, she symbolizes the emotional tether he lost. Not even anexclusive Celine Dion power balladis worth that.
Test Audiences Saved Vanessa’s Life After ‘Deadpool 2’
Tim Miller, the director ofDeadpool2016,planned to expand Vanessa’s role before he departed the sequelover creative differences. According to a 2019interview Miller did with The Playlist’s podcast, “Even in the eleventh hour prior to exiting the project, [Miller] spoke to the higher-ups at 20th Century Fox and pleaded with them […] insisting they at least keep the Vanessa story before throwing everything out.”
Conversely, returning screenwriters Reese and Wernick (joined by Reynolds) didn’t plan on resurrecting Vanessa.Reese told Vulturethat the option was on the table, but,according to Baccarin, the productiondidn’t shoot an end credits loophole until feedback rolled in from dissatisfied test screenings. When Vulture asked if they considered the ramifications of playing into a stereotype, Reese and Wernick self-reflectively responded:
[Reese] “I would say no,we didn’t even think about it. And that was maybe our mistake, not to think about it. But it didn’t really even occur to us. […] We didn’t know what fridging was.”
[Wernick] “If you’re doing a movie where you are trying to get Deadpool at his lowest, […] the only thing to really take away from him is Vanessa. […]I know it wasn’t consciously sexist.”
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Wastes Vanessa’s Potential
Six years later,Deadpool & Wolverine, themost imaginative installment to date, recycles the same fumbles. Wade and Vanessa amicably broke up off-screen during the intervening years, presumably because Wade couldn’t check himself before he wrecked himself and Vanessa established healthy boundaries.The emotional fallout should be immense. Instead, Wade calmly resolves himself toobscurity and failure. Vanessa dates a nice guy who likes hiking. They swap friendly but awkward small talk during his surprise birthday party.
Vanessa only exists toprompt Wade into takingDeadpool & Wolverine’s plot-defining action, and her influence is indirect; she doesn’t know how close she came to beingpruned by the TVAand Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin).Deadpool & Wolverineinherits its predecessors' emotional core but gives Baccarin less screen time thanDeadpool 2. Consequently,Vanessa’s role feels like a placeholder. Remove her from Wade’s found family, and he’d still defy time and space to save their lives.The thoughtful wayDeadpool & Wolverineapproaches its cameosmakes the film’s business-as-usual handling of Vanessa especially disappointing, and excluding Copycat needless — especially sinceincorporating her Variants couldn’t have been easieror more thematically relevant.Wade seeing Copycat could give him greater perspective and flesh out “our” Vanessa. How does being a mutant change her? What prompts Vanessa to use her powers for mercenary work? Does Wade really know his beloved, or does he see the same caricature audiences do?
Deadpool & Wolverine’s 128-minute runtime limits flexibility. But giving a superhero’s girlfriend nuanced agency doesn’t make or break the edit. It just requires thought, awareness, and maximum effort. TheDeadpooltrilogyhighlights its protagonist so precisely that it’s incapable of leaving his narrow orbit— unless you’reCable (Josh Brolin)or Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). If Deadpool’s in the business ofmocking superhero tropes, why not subvert his own trilogy’s most glaring example?
