'Deadpool 2' Writer Debunks Villain Rumor

A recent rumor suggested that one of the villains of Deadpool 2 had been cut from the film. Now writer Rhett Reese has commented on the rumor.

Reese's response is short and sweet, simply calling the rumor "Untrue."

While the response is succinct, it can be interpreted in a number of ways. Jack Kesy's character has yet to be officially revealed. He was rumored to be playing Black Tom Cassidy, the mutant terrorist who was supposedly cut from the film. Is the rumor untrue because Kesy was never playing Black Tom, to begin with? Is it untrue because, despite having his role minimized, he is still technically present in the film? Or is it untrue because his role simply was not cut?

Black Tom Cassidy is a mutant villain with the ability to channel energy through plant-life. He usually carries a shillelagh as his weapon of choice for focusing his mutant ability. Though he was once a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, he is best known for his work as one half of a criminal duo with Juggernaut.

This rumor seems to go hand-in-hand with previous rumors that Deadpool 2 was undergoing major changes in reshoots to combat poor audience test screenings, rumors that star Brianna Hildebrand, who plays Negasonic Teenage Warhead, pushed back against.

"No, it was nothing that had gone wrong," Hildebrand told ScreenGeek. "I think it's a common misconception too – that people think that reshoots are to fix things that people didn't like. A lot of the time, reshoots are to add more of the things that people loved. [Filmmakers] watch their films again and are like 'better fix that.' I don't know how much I can say about that."

According to another report, the Deadpool 2 reshoots are specifically adding more of Josh Brolin's Cable and Zazie Beetz' Domino after both new characters tested particularly well with audiences.

In Deadpool 2, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) coming into conflict with Cable over the fate of a young mutant boy after Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) encourages Wade to look after the child.

Deadpool 2 opens in theaters on May 18th.

Other upcoming X-Men movies include X-Men: Dark Phoenix on February 14, 2019, Gambit on June 7, 2019, and The New Mutants on August 2, 2019.