Deadpool & Wolverine: Lady Deadpool Concept Art Reveals Changes to Blake Lively's Marvel Hero
The original Ladypool sketches revealed a much more elaborate design than the sleek version that showed up onscreen.
Like many of his collaborators, costume illustrator Jonay Bacallado has been pretty aggressively showing off all his Deadpool & Wolverine work on social media recently. The latest is his concept art for Lady Deadpool (sometimes styled in merchandise as Ladypool), the Deadpool variant played in the film by Ryan Reynolds' real-life wife Blake Lively. In the initial design, Ladypool had the stereotypical 1990s comic book design, with straps, seams, pouches, and all manner of fiddly little details. Ultimately, the onscreen version was stripped down, looking much simpler and giving the character a cleaner outline for the memorable shot when she emerges through a cloud of smoke at the head of a group of Deadpools.
You can see the images below, via Bacallado's Instagram account. He also has a shot of the "final" version for comparison.
"Here's Ladypool final costume concept I did for costume designer [Mayes Rubeo] in Deadpool & Wolverine," Bacallado wrote. "Doing Deadpool variants in the costume team was such a gift as fans and artists. It was a time to have fun, explore and just be crazy. One of my favourites, that made it into the film, is Ladypool. We wanted to pay homage to the comic representations, but we applied, as we usual do, a sense of realism, studying every single element of the suit, back and forth. Her proportions are quite different from the male version we all know and love, so we embraced the curves and the sinuosity on her new design."
Of the tweaked final design, he added, "It's so great it turned out so beautifully, enhanced by the performance of [Blake Lively], who brought her to life, giving us one of the most iconic shots from the film."
In Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen as Paradox, and Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, with the return of Deadpool alums Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Stefan Kapičić as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Rob Delaney as Peter, and Lewis Tan as Shatterstar. Aaron Stanford is returning as Pyro from the X-Men film series, with Jennifer Garner rumored to return as Elektra Natchios.
Kevin Feige, Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D'Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey and Simon Kinberg serving as executive producers. Deadpool & Wolverine is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy. Deadpool & Wolverine was released exclusively in theaters on July 26th.