Deadpool & Wolverine star Morena Baccarin shares her biggest complaint about the film. During an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You, the actress discussed her experience making the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. While Baccarin noted that she had fun on set working with the rest of the cast, she expressed disappointment that her character, Vanessa, didn’t have much screen time even though she’s a vital part of the film’s emotional core. Baccarin mentioned that Wade Wilson’s relationship with Vanessa serves as his primary motivating factor, but Vanessa herself gets pushed aside for a large chunk of the movie.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“It was really interesting to me seeing the film how much you get out of such a short time on set,” Baccarin said. “The emotional core of the film is the relationship with [Wade and Vanessa]. I am his reason for being and for wanting to be a better person and for going on the journey he goes on … once again, same with the second film. And it really is really interesting because these are massive franchises and there are so many people who are the bosses of that job and who are going to decide to tell the story they want to tell. I think it’s really unfortunate that once again, the female character that is, in the beginning of the story so much a part of the story … the crux of it, the reason, the emotional arc, but doesn’t have the screen time or the satisfying journey.”
Premiering last summer, Deadpool & Wolverine provided Marvel Studios with a much-needed reprieve from the Multiverse Saga’s troubles. It earned widely positive reviews and grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the second highest-grossing film of the year (behind only Pixar’s Inside Out 2). Despite that level of success, Marvel has not announced a future Deadpool project yet. Kevin Feige recently shared that there “have absolutely been discussions” about bringing Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman back to the fold, but nothing’s materialized yet.
If there is a Deadpool 4, Baccarin would love to see Vanessa have an expanded role. Last fall, she told us she’d be up to play Copycat in the MCU. While the films haven’t made reference to this, in the comics, Vanessa is a mutant who goes by the name Copycat and has the ability to shapeshift. Copycat is a deadly mercenary who’s embarked on some notable missions, such as when she infiltrated X-Force by impersonating Domino.
While Baccarin’s enjoyed spending time with her co-stars, her frustrations over the way Vanessa has been handled in the Deadpool movies so far is warranted. As she alludes to in her comments, the fridging of Vanessa in Deadpool 2 was a very controversial development; the character was essentially relegated to a plot point whose death gave Deadpool his motivation. While Vanessa doesn’t die again in Deadpool & Wolverine, she similarly isn’t really a fleshed out character in the threequel. It’s established early on that Wade is trying to reconcile his relationship with Vanessa and reconnect, though Vanessa herself isn’t part of the journey. This is a stark contrast from the first Deadpool film, in which Baccarin had much more screen time. There, the character’s dynamic with Wade was more fleshed out, selling the audience on the love they have for each other.
Baccarin knows at least some things about Vanessa’s comic book history, so it’s understandable why she’s eager for more. There’s potential for Vanessa to be a real standout character, but the filmmakers haven’t fully tapped into that yet, instead building (admittedly well-received) adventures about Deadpool teaming up with the likes of Cable and Wolverine. Because Vanessa is such an integral part of Deadpool’s arc on the big screen, she deserves to have a larger role in subsequent films. Hopefully something like that is in the cards for Deadpool 4, allowing the creative team to show a new, fresh side of Wade and Vanessa’s relationship.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Virgin Films -
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Image courtesy of Netflix. -
Image courtesy of Monolith
