For those of you who don’t know (the real) Deadpool (also known as Wade Wilson), he’s a cult Weapon X man, a slightly unhinged mercenary with a military background and razor-sharp wit, and thankfully for us fans, there’s a movie currently in development to be directed by Tim Miller (visual effects Creative Supervisor on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Rockfish). Before we go into reasons why the film (and the 2013 game) is going to rule, here’s a little background on the character…

Basically, Deadpool’s got the same regenerative powers as Wolverine (which actually originate from the popular character himself), except there’s a particularly nasty catch – he’s scarred for life, because of accelerated cancerous cells in his body. He really is not the superhuman lazer-shooting muppet you saw in the Wolverine: Origins film – he’s way more awesome than that.

Long story short-ish, following years working internationally as a mercenary (with a rule of only killing people who he believes deserve it), and after finding out he has cancer, Wilson looks for help and becomes a test subject for government special weapons development agency Department K and their Weapon X initiative. They’re lovely folks, you know.

Wilson’s abilities were stolen from Wolverine (when he had previously been kidnapped by the Weapon X team), and when he was rammed full of those helpful healing abilities it worked a treat against the cancer as it wasn’t no longer possible for him to die. That’s all gravy, apart from the fact that the healing factor only sped-up (and rejuvenated) his cancer, leaving him with a ridiculous amount of scar tissue, and thus, he’s always been described as “severely disfigured” and had to wear that incredibly cool red suit he sports.

Branded (rather sadly) as a failed experiment, our guy gets kicked out of Weapon X and sent to a hospice, where the delightfully named and utterly evil Doctor Killebrew, and assistant Ajax experimented on people; residents held a “deadpool” and bets as to who would die first (which Wilson would win… a lot… so there’s the nickname explained).

Other significant parts of Deadpool’s history include getting his heart ripped out, dying, regenerating, killing for various people (including the Kingpin, Wilson Fiske) and organisations, gaining a reputation along the way for battling the likes of Wolverine and having run-ins with Cable, Juggernaut and T-Ray, before eventually re-joining Weapon X, then dying (and coming back to life) again. Oh, and he also has a very unhealthy obsession with chimichangas.

Thing is, throughout all of his appearances in various publications and forms since the early 90s, and in the forthcoming 2013 game, Deadpool remains blissfully entertaining to the sci-fi action fan: breaking the fourth wall and making jokes all the time while killing a ridiculous amount of people makes him a real standout.

So with that background established, let’s look at the five reasons the upcoming Deadpool movie deserves a lot of hype…

We are currently seeking Film contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Film contributor, click here.

You Might Also Like...

In this post: • •