There are many people who feel that the story of Deadpool 2 was a much richer and deeper plot, with genuine moments of emotion sprinkled throughout the laughs typically associated with the 4th wall breaking Merc with a Mouth. One of the most heartbreaking moments came in the prologue of the film, in the form of the death of Wade Wilson’s love, Vanessa. What made the obvious loss all the more devastating is that she died at the hands of a missed target of Wilson’s who was seeking revenge.
Thanks to the wonders of time travel (courtesy of Cable’s Time Travel Rolex), Deadpool was able to go back in time and rectify Vanessa’s death, bringing back the love of his life, all during the end credits scenes.
This scene almost didn’t happen, though. While speaking with CBR, writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese stated that they were originally going to leave Vanessa’s death permanent.
“We originally did not save her. It was interesting — we thought we might have to save her with the time machine, because the audience would be mad at us, but they were accepting of her being dead,” Reese explained.
Wernick added that it wasn’t easy going through the motions of seeing her die early in the film only to revive her at the very end.
“It was a difficult decision, but one, story-wise, that we felt we had to make – and then we got to have our cake and eat it too by bringing her back to life at the very end.”
The act of bringing her back has been a controversial one amongst fans. Many feel it was a cop out, whilst others are happy for Wade to have his girl back. Then, of course, there’s the space/time continuum conundrum. If you subscribe to the Back to the Future linear time line theory, then Wade going all the way back to save her created an alternate timeline. A timeline that unravel the entire plot of the film.
The whole reason Deadpool was in the X-Mansion during the time of Russell’s news story that led to Wilson joining the X-Men and trying to help the boy, leading to the rest of the story, was because of attempting to kill himself after Vanessa’s death. If she lived, then why would he ever join the X-Men and go to help Russell in the first place?
But, what if I can offer you another way to view this? For those who have seen the Amy Adams film, Arrival, time is shown not in a linear sense, but in a circular, 5th dimension sense. In other words, the past, present, and future are actually all happening at the exact same time. I know, weird, right? But stick with me here.
If we look at time 5th dimensionally, you can make changes to the past without completely altering the future, other than the little changes you have made. This is because it is all happening simultaneously. So, even though he brings back Vanessa, and subsequently doesn’t try to kill himself, the other events of stopping Cable from killing the boy and ultimately developing his new team still happen.
Ok, so this may be a way too existential discussion for an R Rated, fictional story about a guy fond of dick jokes, but that’s kind of the point. It’s just a fun movie. Don’t take it too seriously. Let Wade get the girl back and still save the day. Lord knows, the comics are full of much larger plot holes, after all.
What do you think of the choice to save Vanessa? Do you have any time travelling theories? Let us know in the comments below!