Tim Miller's scrapped Deadpool 2 film would've included a big arc for Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and a surprise appearance from a member of the Fantastic Four. Directing 2016's sleeper comic book movie hit Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds, the director was set to return to helm the expected sequel. But his supposed creative differences with the film's star and primary creative force resulted in Miller's exit from the follow-up. He was replaced by John Wick co-director David Leitch.
Now, three years after he parted ways with the Deadpool franchise, Miller is busy with other projects - the latest of which is helming Terminator: Dark Fate, which many hail as a return to form for the long-running sci-fi franchise. But with enough time passing, he's sharing some pertinent story details of what could've been his Deadpool 2 film.
Speaking with The Playlist while promoting Dark Fate, Miller also opened up about his original ideas for Deadpool 2. While the film's theatrical version maintained Russel Collins/Firefist (Julian Dennison) in a pivotal role, there were some significant changes starting with the casting of “a [comic accurate] Cable who was 6 feet, 7 inches” unlike a smaller Josh Brolin for the gig. Plot-wise, Vanessa was eventually going to transform into a mutant herself as Copycat. Nathan Summers would've “cracked the secret to the Vanessa storyline” as her love story with Wade Wilson also getting a bigger focus. Miller said that even after his exit was confirmed, he “fought hard to have that in there.” Finally, fans would've witnessed “the Thing throwing down with Juggernaut” during the film's climactic battle.
Reports claimed that there were several reasons why Miller departed Deadpool 2 including a disagreement on the director wanting to cast Kyle Chandler as Cable - a choice that Reynolds opposed. While this hasn't been confirmed, it checks out with Miller's comments about wanting to have a more comic-accurate looking actor for the role of the time-traveling mutant although not by much (Chandler is 1.85m compared to Brolin's 1.78m). It's unclear how Cable's arc was supposed to pan out, but given his supposed involvement in Vanessa's storyline, it's safe to say that it was significantly tweaked.
The main change to Miller's Deadpool 2, however, involved Vanessa's trajectory. The mere fact that they were supposed to transform her as a mutant at the end of the film would've left her with a potential big role for Deadpool 3. Instead, the movie's theatrical version ended up using her very sparingly. While she was instrumental in kicking off the sequel's overall narrative, fans don't get to spend that much time with her as she was killed early on. Prior to its release, there were rumors that about this creative choice that's tipped to divide fans, which turned out to somehow come to fruition once the public saw the flick.
Of course, the idea of the Thing battling Juggernaut would've been cool to see on the big screen in Deadpool 2, but in hindsight, including it would've been made the Deadpool's iteration in the MCU more complicated. It's still unknown how Kevin Feige will move forward with the franchise knowing that it won't be rebooted like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four film series. In any case, now that all these characters are under Marvel Studios, seeing this happen isn't that out of reach.
Source: The Playlist