Deadpool & Wolverine Reveals Closer Look at "Zenpool" Variant

Zenpool made a brief appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine, bringing one of Wade Wilson's most surprising eras to the big screen.

By Russ Burlingame

Costume illustrator Jonay Bacallado has been sharing a number of images from his Deadpool & Wolverine portfolio to social media, and over the weekend -- as the movie itself retook the #1 spot at the box office and crossed $600 million domestically -- he shared a look at Zenpool, one of the many Deadpool variants that made up the Deadpool Corps in the film. Zenpool is an interesting character, in that he isn't a variant of Wade in the comics, but an alternative costume and identity used by Wade for a brief period of time. As a result of the AXIS crossover in 2014, Deadpool was one of a number of characters whose morality was reversed by a powerful spell, transforming him into a peaceful and serene Buddhist. Of course, he eventually got better...well, "better" might be overselling it, but he got to be Deadpool again.

In spite of how relatively recent the comics were, Zenpool feels like one of the deeper cuts in the Deadpool Corps, since he both wasn't around for very long in the source material and also isn't immediately easy for casual fans to identify like Lady Deadpool or Babypool, where it's pretty clear "Oh, that's just the same dude, but a woman and a baby." You can see Bacallado's art below.

"Zenpool is one of the many variants we worked on that made it to the film," Bacallado explained. "It's the only variant that has almost no red in its costume. We wanted him to have a sense of calmness, fluidity, martial arts master and Tibetan monk. He represents all opposite things the OG Deadpool is about. Mayes wanted to portray him in the middle of his daily practice."

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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.

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