Essays

What’s the Big Deal With the X-Force?

Ryan Reynolds says ‘Deadpool 2’ will be the last Deadpool movie. The X-Force is why that is true.
Deadpool Team
By  · Published on May 23rd, 2018

Ryan Reynolds says ‘Deadpool 2’ will be the last Deadpool movie. The X-Force is why that is true.

Ever since the first mention of the X-Force in the Deadpool 2 trailers, the internet has been buzzing about what that could mean. Does this mean that the Deadpool franchise as we know it is dead? Who will this team comprise? And is there room in the universe for one more superhero team-up movie? Deadpool 2 presented its own solution to the problem, joking about a team-up movie, in typical Deadpool fashion. That might’ve satisfied moviegoers at the moment, but there is a family forming. This family might end up looking mighty different from the traditional X-Force.

Deadpool 2 introduces audiences to a new supergroup that Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) put together in a matter of minutes. This all-new team of ragtag mutants was set to be the ultimate team, with the combined strength and intelligence to take down the fanny-pack wearing, metal-armed Cable (Josh Brolin). If only it wasn’t windy that day. Deadpool got these D-list characters together, and they were short-lived. If they seemed like plausible allies, it is because each one of them are real Marvel superheroes, albeit forgettable. Except for mustachioed, non-mutant Peter (Rob Delaney). He has not appeared in Marvel comics.

Terry Crews’ Bedlam, Lewis Tan’s Shatterstar, and Brad Pitt’s Vanisher were all canonical superheroes.  If that conversation about Shatterstar being from Mojoworld sounded plausible enough, it was because that was an actual comic book story. These heroes were just not meant to be. After the introduction, they were all murdered Final Destination style. Telephone lines, wood chippers, helicopter blades, you name it. Everyone met their end except for two. Deadpool and Domino (Zazie Beetz) survived with her fake super ability of luck. This was essentially the end of the X-Force before it even began.

That doesn’t sound great for Drew Goddard’s X-Force movie. Thankfully, Cable and Deadpool are still around. And many others in fact. At the end of Deadpool 2, a new faction forms. The survivors include Deadpool, Domino, Cable, Firefist (Julian Dennison), Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Yukio (Shiori Kutsuna), and an unlikely X-Force candidate cab driver Dopinder (Karan Soni). It is much easier to imagine the X-Force will come from this group of heroes.

Some of these heroes are ripped right from the comic pages, a few of them have been changed for the big screen.

Firefist has been given a makeover from his comic book days. He is shown in the comics as a fit, tall, blonde-haired man with the ability to generate fire. Julian Dennison’s Firefist doesn’t fit into any of the physical characteristics of the character but shares the same name and ability. Domino is spot on in the depiction of her character, but Yukio differs from on the pages. She is given electrical abilities and appears in a relationship with Negasonic Teenage Warhead. There isn’t any history of her working with the X-Force, but there’s a good chance she’ll continue to be part of the movies.

In the early 90s, the X-Force comprised Cable, Boom Boom, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, and Warpath. It continued to change over the years with Deadpool being added to the roster permanently in the 00s. That means there is room for characters to come in and out of the X-Force as needed. There was never a team that lasted throughout the decades and the true function of the X-Force is up to the creators to envision.

Will X-Force continue in the same vein that the Deadpool movies have established or will they go a different direction with it? Most audiences would prefer the continuation of the tone Deadpool has set with comedy and violence, thus bringing this group into a new franchise of their own. This would mean the end of the Deadpool movies as we know them.

Ryan Reynolds has hinted that this would be the end of Deadpool’s solo outings. “I don’t know that there would be a Deadpool 3, I really don’t,” Reynolds told EW. “I feel like the character, in order for him to function properly within his own universe, you need to take everything away from him. I don’t think that you can keep doing that.” With the character joining the X-Force he can continue to be used in a cinematic universe, without always having to put Vanessa on ice.

It remains to be seen what mutants will show up for Goddard’s X-Force movie; it could be the remaining characters from Deadpool 2 or any number of mutants that are still available to Fox. X-Force won’t be the original team depicted in the comic books years ago, but it will still contain some of the best characters that brought that name to prominence. Perhaps this is for the best, otherwise, we would be stuck with having a character like Shatterstar throughout an entire movie and nobody wants that.

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News Writer/Columnist for Film School Rejects. It’s the Pictures Co-host. Bylines Playboy, ZAM, Paste Magazine and more.