Spoilers ahead for Deadpool 2.
If you’re wondering why you didn’t see much of Morena Baccarin in the advertising for Deadpool 2, there’s a reason for that. Early in the movie, Baccarin’s character, Vanessa, gets killed by gangsters, which sends Deadpool into a spiral of despair and self-pity before going on a journey of self-discovery where he learns to care about other people.
However, in the end credits scene, Deadpool steals Cable’s time-travel device and the first thing he does is save Vanessa. This raises the question: Is Vanessa really dead? If she’s alive, doesn’t that negate Deadpool’s entire story since he would have no reason to change? That’s the confusing issue with a Deadpool movie: what do we take seriously and what’s just a goof?
Collider's Steve Weintraub spoke to star/co-writer Ryan Reynolds and director David Leitch to get their take on the Vanessa situation. For Reynolds, he likes to believe that Vanessa is now alive, although he wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s now canon:
“It was obviously that was hugely debated internally for us. Do we do this, do we not do this? That sort of idea of Deadpool snatching Cable's time traveling device and using it in an incredibly irresponsible, reckless way was sort of too good to pass up for us. It was too much fun to pass up for us. But I also like to think that Vanessa is alive and well. And X-Force is, as we go forward, and I assume we're making an X-Force movie cause that's what we're all very excited about. I don't know how many of the supporting characters are in it or not yet. We're still sort of figuring all that stuff out. But I would assume that Vanessa is alive and well. But that's not something we've all really totally dug into. Right now that's just my sort of Monday morning quarterback spot.”
Reynolds added, “I love her. I love that character. And I love how much she anchors Wade Wilson in Deadpool. And so, I would certainly love to have more storylines with her in the future.”
Leitch shares a similar opinion where he acknowledges that it’s up for interpretation, but he likes to think that Vanessa is now alive thanks to Deadpool’s time-traveling antics:
“That’s a good question. I think [she's not dead]. We see that he saved her. You can leave it to interpretation, and I think people have fun with it, but in my opinion, the whole point of going back in time was to save her so she’d be alive.
If it’s just having fun, and we’re just winking at ourselves…I think Wade stole Cable’s device and he’s going back and he’s going to go fix time. Yes, we brought her back. It was intentional. It was something I wanted from the beginning. It was my coda idea to steal the time travel device, and that got everyone really excited and started to generate a lot of ideas, especially Ryan who’s like, ‘I’ve got some things I want to fix!’”
Personally, I think Vanessa should stay dead. I know causality isn’t a big factor in a Deadpool movie, but either her death has weight or it doesn’t. While I’m not crazy about using the romantic interest’s death as plot motivation, at least it sets Wade on an interesting course. If you remove it, then why would anything else happen in the movie?
Of course, I’m sure I’m just overthinking it, and it’s not like I’m going to be mad if Vanessa comes back in a future movie (no one should ever be mad over anything that happens in a Deadpool movie), but I feel like they should have stuck to their guns even if the time travel coda is a good gag.
What do you think about Vanessa’s death? Do you want to see her return in a future movie? Sound off in the comments.
For more on Deadpool 2, click on the links below.
- Weekend Box Office: ‘Deadpool 2’ Slices Its Way to a $125 Million Opening
- ‘Deadpool 2’: Be on the Lookout for These 3 Cameos
- Exclusive: Ryan Reynolds on ‘Deadpool 2’, the Title, Cable, the ‘X-Force’ Movie and More
