Kind of. We knew we wanted to introduce
Cable and Domino. Introducing other
X-Force members was something that
happened organically a lot closer to shoot-
ing. We knew we wanted to tell this story
about this kid [Russell]. The first movie is
a love story masquerading as a comic-book
movie, and this one is kind of a family film
masquerading as a comic-book film again.
Did your own daughters inspire that?
The genesis of it was “What if Deadpool
had a child?” Like, what if we started five
years later and what would that be like? By
page 1.5, it was totally untenable. We were
just like, “Nope. Nope. No, no, no. This is
never, ever going to work.” We went back
to the drawing board and kind of reworked
it in a way about wanting to have a child,
which is something that so many people I
know experience on a daily basis—want-
ing to have a child but can’t. We wanted
the emotion, the pain, to take everything
away from this guy, put him in a position
of being the underdog. Then at least the
audience can have the most fun, because
this is a guy that had everything and was
just Captain America-ing his way around
the world. He wouldn’t be able to be the
Merc With a Mouth—he would have to be
the Merc With a Virtue, and that’s not
what we wanted to do.( From top )
Deadpool
attempts to calm
the mutant
Russell (Julian
Dennison);
X-Force prepare
to do something
cinematicJosh Brolin told me part of why he
took this movie is that he’s a huge
fan ofThe Proposal[see sidebar,
next page].
Yes, he’s mentioned it many times, which
is weird to me because he’s so tough.
I would just never imagine that. Like, he
pretends he’s, like, all sort of New Agey
sometimes and all this stuff, but deep
down inside I just think his heart is made
of some, like, jagged chunk of Yosemite
granite. I don’t buy that underneath all
this textured skin is a sweet little angel
that loves romantic comedies. I don’t buy
it. Not for a second.
He is insanely ripped in this film. Did you
train with him?
I don’t know how he did it. We didn’t train
together, not even once. We talked a lot
about, like, how they shouldn’t just dis-
pense [arthritis drug] Celebrex in pill
bottles: It should come in smoothies and
sprays—you could have one that’s sort
of like a skin toner that you just fire on
your face.
There’s a running joke in this movie that
“Papa, Can You Hear Me?” fromYe n t l
sounds just like “Do You Want to Build a
Snowman?” fromFrozen. Is that because
Brolin’s stepmother is Barbra Streisand?
This is a sore spot for me, because there’sDOMINO
DELIVERS
Luckisindeed a lady in
Deadpool 2.Inorderto
boost his odds of defeating
Cable, Deadpool forms a new
team of mutants called
X-Force. His best chance (pun
intended) is Domino, played by
Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz. The laid-
back, sarcastic killer is like a
walkingFinal Destinationset
piece. “The probability is
always in her favor,” explains
Beetz. “So she can, like, shoot
at stuf behind her back with-
out looking and she just hits it.”
Beetz similarly hits the bull’s-
eye with her performance and
steals every scene she’s in. “I
just loved her attitude with the
character,” says Ryan Reynolds.
“There’s something really funny
about putting her in situations
where there’s nothing but
calamity and chaos, because
she sort of just hangs back
and has almost this, like,
Saturday-evening, Matthew
McConaughey attitude about
everything.” It’s the biggest film
role to date for the 26-year-old
actress, and she admits she
took it very seriously. Says
Beetz: “I felt very scholarly on
that set. I kind of sat back and
just sort of absorbed every-
thing around me.”
—T I M STAC K
Additional reporting by Chancellor AgardDENNISON AND REYNOLDS: JOE LEDERER/2OTH CENTURY FOX;
DEADPPOOL 2
: 2OTH CENTURY FOX (2)