(Spoiler alert: Do not keep reading if you have not seen “Deadpool”)
“Deadpool” has just begun plundering its way through the worldwide box office, but plans for the sequel are already underway.
Since the character enjoys such a rich history within the Marvel Universe dating back to the early-’90s, possibilities for the next storyline are practically endless.
For the sake of the uninformed, TheWrap went to “Deadpool” experts (a.k.a. comic book store workers) to find out which plot they’d like to see in the follow-up film.
Nolan Pugh, employee at Mega City One (Los Angeles):
Noting “Deadpool’s” post-credits reveal that the character Cable will play a part in the sequel, Pugh notes that the tandem of Cable and Deadpool has been almost as long-running as Deadpool himself. “They are almost as iconic a duo as Batman & Robin and Power Man and Iron Fist,” he said.
The comic book “Cable & Deadpool” paired two unlikely partners — Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth and Cable, his more stoic former enemy — to comedic effect. Subplots ranged from the overthrow of the dictator of Rumekistan to thwarting a plot to turn the world’s inhabitants blue.
“Something more successful they’d probably go with is Deadpool’s love affair with Lady Death, because something they talked about is Deadpool’s pansexuality in the movie,” said Pugh. “Of course they can’t be together because Deadpool can’t die, so he can only see her during the brief moments between him dying and his healing factor kicking in.”
Michael Zapcic, assistant manager at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash (Red Bank, New Jersey):
Zapcic observed that Ryan Reynolds‘ fiancée Vanessa was a member of X-Men spin-off team X-Force in the comics, “so I’d like to see more of Morena Baccarin. You can never see too much of her.”
He’d also “love to see him go up against some of the lamer X-Men. How can he not kill Maggot, one of the world’s worst X-Men ever? His mutant power is he has two maggots. What kind of power is that? Who thought that up?” (Answer: writer Scott Lobdell and artist Joe Madureira.)
“There’s Siren and Banshee, these Irish mutants, that would be pretty cool,” Zapcic continued. “Just throw all of the oddball X-Men they were afraid to touch in the “X-Men” franchise into ‘Deadpool.’”
Finally, Zapcic says, “‘Return to Weapon X,’ that would be really neat,” referring to the genetic research program that turned both Deadpool and Wolverine into living weapons in the comics. “That would be really badass.”
Airrion Vaughn, co-owner of Cool Cats Comics (Los Angeles):
“If anything they should do the ‘Uncanny X-Force,’ storyline,” Vaughn said. In the title, which ran from 2010-2012, Deadpool is “among a bunch of serious characters and he’s the comic relief. Everyone on that team is a killer like he is, but he’s the only one that’s goofy and silly.”
Expressing a sentiment similar to Pugh’s, Vaughn said, “The first two [Deadpool] miniseries would be a good one, because in the comics Vanessa’s a mutant, but they didn’t really play that up in that movie. And after their relationship goes sour, he falls in love with [X-Man] Banshee’s daughter Siren, so that would be really good. She couldn’t stand him, but his whole niche was getting her to fall in love with him.”
Vaughn also suggested the Deadpool storyline “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” in which “Wolverine and Captain America find out that Captain America is part of the first Weapon X program. And how all of that is intertwined and how they use Wolverine’s healing factor to make Deadpool’s healing factor. They didn’t talk about that much in the movie either, but that storyline is really, really good.”
And, thanks to the fragmentation of movie rights between Fox and Disney, really, really unlikely.