One of the biggest cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine was Lady Deadpool and now the actress and her creator are sharing the fun way the casting is perfect for the character!
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool & Wolverine became a monster hit, grossing a whopping $205 million in its first weekend. It’s little wonder as it’s the return of Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, the immortal Merc With the Mouth who has to save his reality from destruction. That involves recruiting an alternate-world version of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) on a wild journey.
The movie has a score of cameos from Marvel characters as well as some owned by 20th Century Fox, like Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and more. A huge bit is the climax as Deadpool and Wolverine face off against the Deadpool Corps, a pack of alternate-reality Deadpools. They include anything from a zombie to a dog to a little kid, a baby and more.
The biggest among them is Lady Deadpool aka Wanda Wilson who was introduced in 2010’s Deadpool Corps event. Playing the role is Blake Lively, the former Gossip Girl star who happens to be married to Ryan Reynolds. So, it’s easy to assume that her casting was just for that connection. But it turns out Lively was really the only person who could take on the role.
How Blake Lively inspired Lady Deadpool
Deadpool was created by artist Rob Liefeld for 1990’s New Mutants Vol 1 #98, although the character was a bit different than what fans know today. While he had the same costume and wisecracks, his healing factor wasn’t introduced, and it would be a few years before he was doing his standard fourth-wall-breaking humor.
In 2009, Liefeld was brought back to Marvel for the Deadpool Corps event introducing the character. He crafted Lady Deadpool and in an Instagram post, shared how he based it on Lively as he was a huge Gossip Girl fan. Liefeld just followed the old bit of comic book artists basing characters on real actors and never once dreamed Lively would ever play the role until it happened.
"Back in 2009, Marvel called me and asked me to introduce Lady Deadpool. My wife and I never missed Gossip Girl, Team Serena all the way, so I gave her the blonde hair and modeled her after Blake Lively.When [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin Feige informed me that they were exploring the Deadpool Corps I got my hopes up. If you’ve seen a screening of Deadpool & Wolverine and you see me fighting back tears, they are tears of joy…. My daughter could not be more excited to see the true Killer Queen finally take her role in the pantheon. Blessings to you, Blake."
Lively herself chimed in with her own Instagram post, noting the irony that she had zero idea about Deadpool when she and Reynolds were cast in 2011’s Green Lantern film. Reynolds was even then trying to get a Deadpool movie made after the character’s bad introduction in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While Lively didn’t know about the property, she eventually agreed to the Lady Deadpool cameo and it was only after filming that she learned Liefeld based the character on her.
"In 2010 I was on Gossip Girl and about to film my first superhero movie, The Green Lantern, with my kind Canadian costar Ryan Reynolds. He told … all of us about the Deadpool movie [idea] for the first time [and how] it was a ‘meta’ superhero. [H]ow it would come together for an audience was murky, for everyone but him. It wasn’t a real dream. The movie was never gonna happen. Just before all this in 2010, Rob Liefeld drew an unmasked Lady Deadpool for the first time, [The Deadpool film franchise] wasn’t real. And Rob had no idea I was working with Ryan Reynolds. 12 years later I read Rob’s [original] post. A year after that, [Deadpool & Wolverine] was filmed. And today it’s in theaters. The universe has such a magical sense of humor sometimes."
The movie’s success may lead to more movies and it’d be easy to see a Deadpool Corps spin-off happening. In which case, Lively could end up playing the role again with a much bigger spotlight. It’s amazing how Liefeld could never imagine his model for Lady Deadpool would end up bringing the character to life on the big screen.
Deadpool & Wolverine now in theaters.