Deadpool’s Movie Costume: An In-Depth Look

Yes, Deadpool is really coming to the big screen courtesy of Fox on Feb 12, 2016, and he won’t be sewed-mouthed with Baraka-arms and borrowed powers. No, he’ll be the Merc with the Mouth, and as Ryan Reynolds revealed today, his costume as Wade Wilson is a very close likeness to his most popular comic look.

Here we’ll take a look at the individual components of the costume, and compare them to how he has been seen in the pages of Marvel Comics stories. They say a picture’s worth

The basic design, including the black and red color scheme, hearkens back to creator Rob Liefeld’s original look for the character. Created for The New Mutants #98, drawn and plotted by Liefeld and scripted by Fabian Nicieza, the eventual “merc with the mouth” was then mostly just a lethal mercenary.

The red bodysuit Liefeld designed had black accents on the shoulders, alongside the outer edges of the ribcage and up onto his chest, and large black ovals around eye slits. The costume we see for the film seems to follow those basic design elements perfectly, if with slightly smaller eye-ovals than originally designed.

The buckles we see across the chest in the movie shot were not part of the original design, though they were included in the design for 2013’s Deadpool video game – with a practical use – they held his swords to his back.

He also has a strap going across his chest, which looks like it’s more likely for that particular use, holding a sword for quick access. He also has straps around each bicep, each wrist, and several around his legs. Arm and wrist guards are fairly common amongst various sports, as protective gear in hand-to-hand and weapon combat, and let’s be honest, Deadpool probably just thinks they look cool. The ones around his calf also hold a sheathe of a sort for a knife – in the comics, the character’s only real superpower is his ridiculous level of healing (and pain threshold), so his proficiency in virtually every type of weapon comes in handy. Going with the protective gear theory, it does look like he has kneepads built into the legs of the costume, as well.

Pouches, Glorious Pouches!

A stereotypical staple of 90s costume design, the copious pouches come right from Liefeld’s original look for the character, as well. There’s a belt full of pouches, two leg-belts lined with pouches, and even smaller capsule-size pouches around his arm, in Deadpool’s first comic book appearance.

In this first film shot, we see the belt, and it looks lined with pouches. The right leg also has pouches wrapped around it, while another sheathe or holster takes that spot on the left leg.

In real life, for instance in the US Army (which I was enlisted in for 6 years), pouches are an essential part of the uniform. Classic “Web Gear” would hold about six-eight pouches, used to hold ammunition, canteens, maps, compasses, cammo tubes, and just about any other miscellany you can think of that you might need handy, including the occasional snack. Newer web gear has room for as many as 12 different pouches of varying sizes. Most modern body armor also has tags on it to which additional pouches can be hooked. This is all in addition to the many pockets built right into the uniform. So really, the number of pouches on this outfit (and any others created in the 90s) are too few!

And one more thing, the pose!

The pose is glorious, and it captures the humorous nature of the character nicely. More importantly, however, it is a pretty clear homage to Burt Reynolds lying on a Bear Skin rug because WHY WOULDN’T IT BE?