Deadpool 2 is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. It is the sequel to Deadpool (2016) and the eleventh installment in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by David Leitch and written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds, who stars in the title role alongside Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Jack Kesy. In the film, Deadpool forms the X-Force to protect a young mutant from the time-traveling soldier Cable.
Plans for a sequel to Deadpool began before the original film's release, and were confirmed in February 2016. Though the original creative team of Reynolds, Reese, Wernick, and director Tim Miller were set to return for the second film, Miller left the project in October 2016 due to creative differences with Reynolds and was soon replaced by Leitch. An extensive casting search took place to fill the role of Cable, with Brolin ultimately cast. Principal photography took place in British Columbia from June to October 2017.
Deadpool 2 premiered at the Empire Leicester Square in London on May 10, 2018, and was released in the United States on May 18, by 20th Century Fox. The film outgrossed its predecessor, earning $785.9 million worldwide against a $110 million production budget, becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2018, the highest-grossing film in the X-Men series, and the highest-grossing R-rated film at the time of its release. The film received positive reviews from critics, with some considering it superior to the first film and praising its humor, cast performances, story, and action sequences, while others criticized its tone, script, and recycled jokes. A PG-13-rated version of the film, titled Once Upon a Deadpool, was released on December 12, 2018, to mixed reviews. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Deadpool's film rights were returned to Marvel Studios. A sequel, Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and integrating their characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), was released on July 26, 2024, as part of Phase Five of the MCU.
Plot
After fighting organized crime as Deadpool for two years, Wade Wilson fails to kill one of his targets on his anniversary with his girlfriend, Vanessa. That night, after the pair decides to start a family together, the target tracks Wade down and inadvertently kills Vanessa; Wade then kills him in revenge. Six weeks later, Wade is still wallowing in self-hatred. He visits Blind Al, who unsuccessfully attempts to convince him to move on with his life. After a series of suicide attempts, Wade has a vision of Vanessa in the afterlife but remains alive due to his healing abilities. Wade is left with only a Skee-Ball token as an anniversary gift, as final mementos of Vanessa.
Colossus recovers Wade's body and takes him to the X-Mansion to recruit him. Wade reluctantly agrees to join the X-Men because he believes Vanessa would have wanted him to. He, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead respond to a standoff between authorities and the unstable young mutant Russell Collins at an orphanage owned by the Essex Corporation, labeled a "Mutant Re-education Center". Realizing that Russell has been abused by the orphanage staff, Wade kills one of the staff members before being restrained by Colossus, and both Wade and Russell are arrested. Fitted with power-suppressing collars, they are taken to the Ice Box, an isolated prison for mutant criminals. Meanwhile, Cable, a cybernetically enhanced soldier from the future, travels back in time to kill Russell.
Cable storms the Ice Box and attacks Russell. Wade, whose collar breaks in the ensuing melee, attempts to protect Russell. After Cable takes Vanessa's token, Wade forces himself and Russell out of the prison, but not before Russell overhears Wade denying that he cares for him. Near death again, Wade has another vision of Vanessa in which she convinces him to help Russell.
Deadpool organizes a team he calls X-Force to free Russell from a prison transfer convoy and protect him from Cable. The team launches its assault on the convoy by parachute, but all members die during the landing except for Wade and Domino, whose main superpower she claims to be pure luck. While a fight with Cable distracts them, Russell frees fellow inmate Juggernaut, who agrees to help him kill the abusive orphanage headmaster. Juggernaut destroys the convoy, rips Wade in half, and escapes alongside Russell.
While Wade recovers, Cable offers to work with him and Domino to stop Russell from killing the headmaster. Cable explains that in his timeline, after Russell kills the headmaster, he becomes a serial killer who killed Cable's wife and daughter. Wade accepts Cable's offer, on the condition that Cable gives him a chance to change Russell's mind. At the orphanage, however, Deadpool and team are overpowered by Juggernaut, while Russell pursues the headmaster. Colossus, having initially refused to help out, due to Wade's murderous ways, arrives to distract Juggernaut. Wade fails to placate Russell, forcing Cable to shoot at the boy. Wade leaps in front of the bullet while wearing the Ice Box collar and dies, reuniting with Vanessa in the afterlife. His sacrifice dissuades Russell from killing the headmaster and, consequently, saves Cable's family. Cable uses his last charge, reserved for his return trip to his family, to warp back several minutes, strapping Vanessa's token in front of Wade's heart so he survives the bullet. Cable then decides to stay in the present for a while to help improve the world, knowing that his family will be safe in the future. Afterward, the headmaster is run over and killed by Wade's taxi driver friend Dopinder.
Later, Negasonic and her girlfriend Yukio repair Cable's time-traveling device for Wade. He uses it to save the lives of Vanessa and X-Force member Peter, as well as to kill both an alternate version of himself confronting Wolverine, and Ryan Reynolds after he finishes reading the screenplay for Green Lantern.
Cast
Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool: A wisecracking mercenary with accelerated healing but severe scarring over his body after undergoing an experimental regenerative mutation. He forms the X-Force, a team of mutants, after finding himself at his "lowest point" at the beginning of the film. As a co-writer on the film, Reynolds ad-libbed much of his dialogue throughout the production process. For the film's mid-credits sequence, archive footage of Reynolds portraying Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) is used, and Reynolds also portrays himself before he acted in the film Green Lantern (2011). Josh Brolin as Cable: A time-traveling cybernetic soldier, "in many ways the opposite of Deadpool." Director David Leitch called the dynamic between Cable and Deadpool "sort of classic buddy-cop fare", and compared them to the characters portrayed by Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, respectively, in 48 Hrs. (1982). Leitch added that the character as written in the script was mostly just an "action character", and he relied on Brolin to add nuance to the role and explore the character's internal pain to avoid it becoming a caricature. To train over the course of eleven weeks for the role, Brolin intended to "f—ing blow [himself] up with steroids and then just eat ice cream and watch TV," yet decided against it. He stated he "had this great midlife-crisis idea", and worked out for three hours a day, foregoing sugar. Brolin signed a four-film deal, and described his appearance here as just the introduction for the character, with "three more movies to reveal more". Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle: Wilson's fiancée. The character is killed at the beginning of the film in an example of "fridging"—the killing of a female character to forward the development of a male character. This happens to Cable's wife and daughter as motivation for his story arc as well. Leitch and the writers said they were unaware of the term "fridging" and that they were not being "consciously sexist". Earlier versions of the film simply had Vanessa breaking up with Wilson, but the writers wanted to use the opportunity to "engender great suffering for him by having his line of work be the thing that costs Vanessa her life." They were also more comfortable with the deaths due to the increased number of strong female characters in the film and because the deaths are reversed by the end of the film with time travel; screenwriter Rhett Reese stated, "Maybe that's a sexist thing. I don't know. And maybe some women will have an issue with that. I don't know. I don't think that that'll be a large concern, but it didn't even really occur to us." Baccarin said she trusted the storyline was necessary for the film and emphasized the fact that Vanessa is saved at the end of the film. Julian Dennison as Russell Collins / Firefist: A young mutant with pyrokinetic abilities who is being hunted by Cable. Reynolds insisted on casting Dennison after seeing him in Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), with the character "tailor-made" for him, and no other actors considered for the role. Leitch thought the character was an "interesting take on the whole angle of the villain." Dennison felt the role was particularly special because, being "chubby", he would watch superhero films and "never see anyone like me. I am excited to be that for other kids who look like me." Sala Baker plays the character at an older age, in Cable's future. Zazie Beetz as Domino: A mercenary with the mutant ability to manipulate luck who joins Deadpool's X-Force team. Leitch described the film's version of the character as Beetz' own "real fun interesting take", with the actress interpreting Domino as an only child who forms a "sibling sort of relationship" with Deadpool, with "that back-and-forth banter where she is not dealing with his." Beetz began "working out every day" when she got the role, which required her to shoot guns and use "full body" physicality, and chose not to shave her armpits to match the changing perception of the practice among the general public and to prove that it is "not something that is gross or shameful." T.J. Miller as Weasel: Wilson's best friend and the owner of a bar frequented by mercenaries. Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead: A teenage X-Man with the mutant power to detonate atomic bursts from her body, she is now a "new level of X-Men" after being a trainee in the first film. Hildebrand felt that "it's cool that she's grown and matured and she still has so much of this essence of a punk kid" from the first film, and added that the character would have a "cooler" costume in the sequel. The filmmakers intended to have Hildebrand shave her head to indicate that her abilities burned off her hair, but she was unable to do so due to a television series commitment. The film also reveals that Negasonic is in a same-sex relationship, which is the first openly LGBTQ relationship depicted in a Marvel film. When Reynolds asked Hildebrand how she felt about the potential storyline during development, the actress—a member of the LGBTQ community herself—responded positively with the stipulation that the film not make "a big deal" about the relationship. In a statement, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis praised the relationship as "a milestone in a genre that too often renders LGBTQ people invisible, and should send a message to other studios to follow this example of inclusive and smart storytelling." Jack Kesy as Black Tom Cassidy: A mutant inmate of the facility where Deadpool and Firefist are imprisoned. He was originally written as a more prominent antagonist, acting as a "devil on Firefist's shoulder", but his role was reduced when the writers decided there were too many antagonists in the story and the budget would be better spent on a character such as Juggernaut.