Deadpool 2 was an entertaining film and a good follow-up to the first movie by all accounts, but you do have to wonder what the original director, Tim Miller, had in store for the film before he got shuffled off the project after not seeing eye to eye with Ryan Reynolds.
As it turns out, Miller’s vision for Deadpool 2 would’ve been pretty sick and it would’ve addressed one of the biggest problems in the final film that we got: the premature death of Vanessa.
In a chat on The Playlist‘s Fourth Wall podcast (via SlashFilm), Tim Miller revealed that he “cracked the secret to the Vanessa storyline.”
For those who need reminder, Vanessa is Deadpool’s girlfriend and was surprisingly killed off before the opening credits in Deadpool 2. This was arguably the film’s most problematic moment since it’s a textbook case of the fridging trope in which a female character is killed off to give the male protagonist motivation, and it didn’t go down too smoothly with some moviegoers (unsurprisingly).
Miller said his version of Deadpool 2 would’ve given Vanessa the character arc she deserved and culminated in her eventually becoming the popular superhero character, Copycat. He was so dead set on the idea that he fought all the way to the end for it to happen, even when he exited the project.
“Vanessa had a far richer character arc than what was presented in the final cut of the film seeing her transformation into the iconic character Copycat and a deeper exploration of the love story between herself and Wade.”
Damn, Miller’s original idea sounded sick and would’ve done Vanessa justice. Even though the character was brought back to life at the end of the Deadpool 2 we got, she was handled so poorly that it felt like a missed opportunity for Ryan Reynolds and the filmmakers to properly introduce her as Copycat.
I mean, just think of the weird, even kinker stuff she and Wade would’ve gotten up to when she got her shape-shifting powers.
Beyond giving a far better character arc for Vanessa, Miller said he would’ve also had a more accurate version of Cable, who is about 2 metres tall in the comics but portrayed in Deadpool 2 by the obviously-not-2-metres-tall Josh Brolin.
But the most interesting idea Miller had was a surprise cameo from The Thing from Fantastic Four. The plan was to have The Thing engage in fisticuffs with Juggernaut at the end rather than Colossus, which would’ve been several levels of awesomeness compared to the perfectly-serviceable result we ended up getting.
Again, the Deadpool 2 we got was fine, but after hearing Tim Miller’s take on the film, it feels like we missed out on something pretty damn cool here. But hey, there’s chance for Deadpool 3 to remedy all this so here’s hoping Vanessa/Copycat gets her moment in the spotlight soon.