I’m sorry if you’ve somehow missed ‘Deadpool 2‘ but it is common knowledge at this point that Morena Baccarin’s character of Vanessa was killed off in the introduction to the film and we’re going to be examining that here. This was a move which some have criticized as “lazy writing’ from having “fridged” her character.
For those unfamiliar with the term of fridging, it is an old comic book trope where the wife or girlfriend of a hero dies to further his story. It turns the significant other into a plot device and ends their story for the sake of pushing the hero forward. It was extremely overused for years, and with ‘Deadpool 2’ it made an obvious comeback.
According to Paul Wernick, “A huge, huge debate for years — for three years since we started developing this script in June of 2015 — [was] what to do with Vanessa. Deadpool works when you take everything away from him.”
Ryan Reynolds added in that “Exactly. He’s got to be the underdog somehow.” Sadly, this was done by fridging Vanessa even if it was undone in the credits after the film.
Wernick and the creative team felt that it would be “too dark to start the movie off” and that they all “debated forever” before deciding to do it.
Rhett Reese shared that there were other ways they could have pulled this off as “We had versions where they broke up, and she left him, instead of dying.” However, Wernick shares they didn’t end up feeling it was strong enough and “ultimately I think this is the only version that really works. I think by taking everything away from him at that moment, it drives the character for the rest of the movie.”
Reynolds chimed in with, “And he’s the Merc with the mouth. It’s a lot, and you need to position him in a way that the audience can sympathize with him, and that’s hard to do without taking like you said, everything away from him,” Reynolds says. “So, we were sort of left with this option, and we’re so glad we did it ‘cause it drives the whole film.” With Wernick stating, “It’s just really f—ing dark, you know? And it’s something that we have to juggle and be very sensitive about, is the kind of the waves the ton that these movies take. It’s dramatic and funny and heartfelt, and so it’s a delicate dance.”
It was a dance that quite a few complained was a misstep.
Do you feel that fridging Vanessa was the only way to humanize Wade Wilson and take everything away from him in ‘Deadpool 2’? Could the movie have gone another route and not killed off her character, even if only temporarily? Share your thoughts below, True Believers!
Source: Comic Book
