DEADPOOL 2 Writers Defend Their Treatment Of The Sequel's Female Characters - SPOILERS

DEADPOOL 2 Writers Defend Their Treatment Of The Sequel's Female Characters - SPOILERS

While the response to Deadpool 2 has been positive for the most part, there's been a fair amount of backlash in regards to the sequel's treatment of female characters and the writers now weigh in on that.

News
By JoshWilding - May 22, 2018 01:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Deadpool 2
Source: Vulture
Deadpool 2 wastes no time in killing off Vanessa and Cable's wife and daughter, a creative decision many fans have branded as sexist (that's despite Domino being given a sizeable role and the fact the sequel features the first LGBT couple in a superhero movie). Now, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been asked whether they gave that any thought while penning the script with Ryan Reynolds.

"In the very first drafts of the script, Vanessa didn’t die," Reese revealed in a recent interview with Vulture. "She ended up breaking up with Deadpool, and he was trying to earn her back. Then I think at some point somebody just said, ‘Y’know, Deadpool kind of works best when he’s had everything taken away from him, when he suffers.’ So the thought was maybe we can really, really engender great suffering for him by having his line of work be the thing that costs Vanessa her life."
 
"We always had in our back pocket that we could always bring [Vanessa] back if necessary," he adds. "So, we ran with that. And 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." Wernick went on to explain that killing off Cable's family was done to put him in the same boat as the Merc with the Mouth and excused their respective demises by pointing out that all of them are ultimately resurrected at the end of the well-received sequel thanks to time travel. 
 
"I also think we definitely paid attention to trying to fill the movie with a diverse group of strong female characters, interesting, different female characters," Reese is quick to point out to the site. "Whether it’s Domino, or Negasonic Teenage Warhead — and Vanessa, herself, obviously, is certainly that. So we’ve definitely made a point of not having this just be a testosterone-fueled thing."

Do you agree with these remarks or should Deadpool 2 have treated its female characters better?
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MikeyL
MikeyL - 5/22/2018, 1:23 AM
Good intentions, and yes she does eventually come back but it’s as an after-thought in the credits. While it wasn’t permanent, it was still fridging. I completely understand why they done it, but they could have been more creative in having Wade lose everything other than “Welp. Let’s kill his girlfriend🤷🏻‍♂️“. Everything else about the film I think is done well-to-great but the treatment of Vanessa is horrible and I hope they redeem theirselves with her character in the future.
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 5/22/2018, 1:28 AM
@MikeyL - Well deadpool does not really have anything apart from his girlfriend. Maybe if you blew up his house....

Or kill tim millers character, but that would be the exact same.
MikeyL
MikeyL - 5/22/2018, 2:12 AM
@MrBillCipher - honestly, killing Miller’s character could have paved way for a new comedic side-kick like character while removing an actor with a lot of backlash around him right now, as well as solidifying a strong male platonic friendship that is shown as just as important in someone’s life as a romantic partner. Killing him would have probably been better.

It’s more so the fact that it’s a case of the bad stuff most frequently happens to the superhero’s girlfriend, so when it does happen in vice versa (superheroine’s boyfriend) , it doesn’t have the same impact because it’s just not as often. It just felt like very lazy writing and a cheap plot point. Honestly, it seems like something comic Deadpool would probably mock at some point
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 5/22/2018, 2:30 AM
@MikeyL - Well i don't think deadpool would try and commit suicide for tim millers character, i think in this certain case and context he would need a family member or loved one to die.

I do agree otherwise though.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 5/22/2018, 6:24 AM
@MikeyL

TJ Miller wasn’t in legal trouble during production so that doesn’t work.
newhire13
newhire13 - 5/22/2018, 7:32 AM
@MikeyL - It makes sense for the character though, she’s the only one he truly, unquestionably cares about. The whole reason he ended up becoming what he is now revolves around his love for her and desire to be with her. For somebody who doesn’t think twice about his actions and the chaos they cause it makes sense to make the consequences hit close to home. Idk, I feel like people are reaching on this one.
tunasmelt
tunasmelt - 5/22/2018, 9:42 AM
@MikeyL - I got your back.
Nerdpoint
Nerdpoint - 5/22/2018, 10:06 AM
@MikeyL - awww someone is trying to SJW points. And I can’t believe no one sees Vanessa is the most important character in the movie, the scenes between Vanessa and Wade were so gut wrenching and emotional. Also the post credit scene was most likely not a after thought; they made everyone of those post credit scenes to Give us a metaphorical Deadpool middle finger and troll us because every after credits scene is a joke about waisting our time on movies because with time travel and fixing things movies don’t matter in universes because this movie never happened the way it happened after saving Vanessa
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 5/22/2018, 10:13 AM
@MikeyL - I mean the movie is called "Deadpool" not "Vanessa, Deadpool's girlfriends, or Vanessa and Deadpool". People are here for DP. The argument of fridging is stupid and based on feminist propaganda.

Would people call Wonder Woman reverse fridging since they killed steve trevor to give her a more interesting arc? My point is big and low budget films are already evolving and progressing, there is no need to trash talk a good film just because some1 feels insecure about representation. Believe me, diversity and racism is a bigger issue than gender. The world and the business will not change overnight.
kallel
kallel - 5/22/2018, 2:29 AM
so males and females dying in superhero films are sexist now? Bad, every superhero movie ever! bad! get the robot actors out
Elle79
Elle79 - 5/22/2018, 6:54 AM
@kallel - Yup, this is where we are. It is insane.
noahthegrand
noahthegrand - 5/22/2018, 9:55 AM
@Elle79 - it’s more complicated than that
TheClungerine
TheClungerine - 5/22/2018, 3:12 AM
She was his moral compass and like most great women she made her partner a better man.

Not saying thats what women are there to do...
FromACertainPOV
FromACertainPOV - 5/22/2018, 3:14 AM
I've not seen the film so can't speak to its execution but especially in todays climate and after all the dialogue surrounding Sansa and Theon a couple of season ago on Game of Thrones, I thought we had gotten pass this whole obsession with having female characters exist in a narrative to simple be demoralised, tortured and killed solely for the purpose of providing growth, motivation or direction for male characters.
FromACertainPOV
FromACertainPOV - 5/22/2018, 3:19 AM
@FromACertainPOV - Like they say though, hopefully Domino and Negasonic Teenage Warhead balance the scales and give enough quality material.

Does anyone know if there's any indication of Shatterstar's bisexuality in the film?
MUTO123
MUTO123 - 5/22/2018, 3:22 AM
@FromACertainPOV - I don’t remember them mentioning that. They do mention that Negasonic and Yukio are a couple.
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 5/22/2018, 3:22 AM
@FromACertainPOV - I don't think he lasts long enough to bring it up. Poor fool got diced.
FromACertainPOV
FromACertainPOV - 5/22/2018, 3:27 AM
@MUTO123 - Yeah I knew they were, it's just interesting that the other characters in the film who are actually queer in the comics; Shatterstar and Deadpool, aren't in the film but the minor character that the films reinvented is.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 5/22/2018, 3:33 AM
I can't imagine a great number of people would have a problem with this. Steve Trevor died just last year to motivate Wonder Woman and nobody cared then.
FromACertainPOV
FromACertainPOV - 5/22/2018, 3:44 AM
@Nightwing1015 - There's not a weird cultural precedent for having hollow disposable men to suffer for our female heroines to have a story though.

And Steve's death serves both *his* character and the films themes. His sacrifice progresses him as well as Diana.

He also died in the last like 15 minutes of the film, he was a co-lead and a fully realised character all the way up to that point and his death wasn't the only drive for Diana in the film.

It was also anything but throwaway, it was the third act logical and emotional culmination for both character's as well as the message of the film.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 5/22/2018, 5:45 AM
@FromACertainPOV - "His sacrifice progresses him as well as Diana"

It hardly progresses him in any meaningful way seeing as it killed him. And Vanessa is also a fully realised character who also has a strong presence in the Deadpool franchise. Her death is the only thing that can put Deadpool in a painful situation because he literally doesn't care about anything else.
EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 5/22/2018, 5:46 AM
@Nightwing1015 - Not even a valid comparison.
FromACertainPOV
FromACertainPOV - 5/22/2018, 5:47 AM
@Nightwing1015 - But does her death service *her* arc is what I meant? That's where the distinction lies I think.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 5/22/2018, 5:49 AM
@FromACertainPOV - You said in you other post that the objects are about a desire for "writers to be able to motivate their male characters with something more". My point is, in Deadpool's case, that's nothing. He doesn't care about anything else other than Vanessa.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 5/22/2018, 5:52 AM
@FromACertainPOV - Her death services he arc in as much as she now cannot pursue the life she is excitedly planning with Wade. If the writers want to emphasise the pointlessness or needlessness of a death then I don't think they have to make excuses for that.

@EskimoJ - It's not a direct comparison but my point was, it's ok to kill off love interests.
RamonSuarez
RamonSuarez - 5/22/2018, 3:34 AM
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 5/22/2018, 3:38 AM
All major forces fault...
newhire13
newhire13 - 5/22/2018, 3:40 AM
Are people more upset that they killed her character because they liked her or that they killed a woman?
Humperdink
Humperdink - 5/22/2018, 9:55 AM
@newhire13 -

GhostDog
GhostDog - 5/22/2018, 3:41 AM
All this generation does is complain.
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