Hildebrand). But look more closely, and you’ll see he’s just
wearing an X-Men T-shirt over his regular costume. Which
sums up the character, and the movie, nicely: never wholly part
of the X-Men world; always on the outside, looking in and
taking the piss.
But it should also deliver in another area: bone-crunching
action, as Deadpool inds himself in a battle with metal-
armed mercenary-from-the-future Cable (Josh Brolin),
with the future of a mysterious kid (Julian Dennison, seen
here about to lame on) at stake. David Leitch — one of
Hollywood’s top action directors and the maniac behind
John Wick and that incredible one-shot stairwell ight in
Atomic Blonde — was brought in to marshal the madness.
“There are set-pieces that are speciically Deadpool,” he
says. “You’re going to learn about this character through
the action but you’re going to have fun. There’s slapstick and
Mr Pool at your
service: Ryan Reynolds
returns as the cocksure
superhero alongside
Colossus (Stefan
Kapicic) and Negasonic
Teenage Warhead
(Brianna Hildebrand).
satire and classic meta stuff, all of which we do within
the action.”
Leitch, who replaced Tim Miller in the director’s
chair after the latter moved on to the untitled Terminator
sequel, is also well aware that Deadpool’s greatest strength
— his incredible healing factor (which effectively renders
him invulnerable) — could also be the sequel’s greatest
weakness, and designed the action accordingly. “The thing
I was excited about, as a ight choreographer, was, how
do we use Deadpool’s powers in an interesting way?” he
says. “How do I choreograph action scenes that are
shocking and memorable? I wanted to get hold of that
power.” Will he use it for evil ends? The wait might kill us.
CHRIS HEWITT
DEADPOOL 2 IS IN CINEMAS FROM 16 MAY