Deadpool just smashed box office records for R-rated movies, taking in more than $150 million in its domestic opening weekend. That’s big money for a film budgeted at just $58 million (chump change by superhero standards), and means Deadpool 2 is more or less a dead certainty now. So, when the Merc with a Mouth does roll back onto our screens, this is who we need to see him up against:
1. Cable
Let’s just get the obvious one out of the way now. Deadpool and Cable have been a common pairing ever since their massive 50-issue Cable & Deadpool run in the ‘00s. Now Cable’s backstory is a little complex (he’s the time-travelling alternate timeline son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, implanted with a technovirus) but we have a feeling these guys can make it all work.
2. Bob, Agent of Hydra
Comics fans will all know Bob, the hapless Hydra agent who becomes Deadpool’s sometime-sidekick. The first film gave us a glimpse of Bob in its final fight scene (but maybe you didn’t catch who he was), and totally left him alive, so we’re expecting lots more Bob to come. Sure, he probably can’t come from Hydra, since Fox don’t have the rights, but we’ll make do.
3. Quicksilver
The fast-talking speedster was a highlight of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and is coming back for this summer’s Apocalypse, but for our money he’d be perfect as a foil for Wade Wilson. There’s no way in hell they’d get along at first, but we’d love to see Quicksilver hurting Deadpool just as quickly as he can heal himself.
4. Professor X
McAvoy or Stewart – we don’t mind. Even if it’s just a cameo, we want to see what the esteemed Professor makes of the Merc with a Mouth – and vice versa. Just imagine the Professor trying to read Deadpool’s mind and recoiling in horror – tell me you wouldn’t watch that.
5. Copycat
We loved Morena Baccarin as Wade’s girlfriend Vanessa, but there’s an obvious route to expand on the character: reveal her to be her comic counterpart, Vanessa Carlysle, a.k.a. Copycat. She’s a shapeshifter (think Mystique from X-Men), which brings up all sorts of dramatic possibilities since Deadpool hates his own appearance. Plus, it gets us more Morena Baccarin, which can only be a good thing.
6. X-Force
Think the angsty teenage sibling to the X-Men – X-Force is the team-up movie Fox has been considering for a while, and might just go for now. Deadpool’s often a member, as is Cable, along with a few others you honestly probably haven’t heard of. Just imagine The Avengers with more dick jokes, and you’re halfway to how great this could be.
7. Hugh Jackman
Yup, you read that right. Hugh Jackman. Not Wolverine. Deadpool had no shortage of 4th wall-breaking, and the best bits of that were frequent references to the Aussie X-Men star. What better way to smash the 4th wall for good than by bringing Jackman into the film as himself, if only to see what Deadpool does when put face-to-face with the guy?
