100 Fun Facts About Deadpool

Deadpool first appeared in which comic, cover-dated February 1991?

The New Mutants #98 cast him as a hired gun sent after Cable, and the Domino in that issue was later revealed to be the shapeshifter Copycat in disguise.

Which artist and writer team created Deadpool?

Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza split the job: Liefeld plotted, drew and named the masked mercenary, while Nicieza wrote the dialogue and relished giving him a mouth with no filter.

Wade Wilson's name is a cheeky nod to Slade Wilson, the alter ego of which DC Comics mercenary?

Deathstroke was already a masked mercenary with guns and a sword when Deadpool arrived looking much the same, so his writer owned up to the likeness with the name.

In the comics, which secret program, the one that made Wolverine, gave Wade Wilson his healing factor?

Weapon X wrote him off when his new powers misfired and sent him to die in a ward called the Hospice, where the patients bet on who would go first: the dead pool.

Which team created DC's Slade Wilson, Wade Wilson's namesake, in The New Teen Titans?

Marv Wolfman and George Pérez made him the Teen Titans' great enemy, a mercenary whose vendetta began when he swore revenge for the death of his eldest son Grant.

Deadpool's healing factor was grafted onto cells already ridden with what?

Cancer was the terminal diagnosis that drove the mercenary to volunteer for the experiment, which saved his life but left him scarred and unstable.

Deadpool's red and black costume and wisecracking personality were inspired by which other Marvel hero?

Spider-Man's mask is just an oval and two big eyes, which fellow artists loved for being quick to draw, so Deadpool's creator borrowed the look and the wisecracks.

Which writer launched Deadpool's first ongoing series in 1997 and introduced his elderly housemate Blind Al?

Joe Kelly was untested on a monthly comic and Marvel expected the series to last about six issues; instead it defined Wade as a would-be hero who keeps failing.

Which habit, rare among Marvel characters, is Deadpool's trademark in comics and films alike?

Breaking the fourth wall means he knows he is fictional; one 2012 comic ends with him bursting into the real world to confront Marvel's own writers.

Which former Superman actor cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine as a cigar-chomping Wolverine variant?

Henry Cavill turns round with a cigar, gets dubbed 'the Cavillrine' by Wade and punches him flat; fans had been casting him in Marvel roles since his Superman exit.

Wade's bride Shiklah was first promised to which Marvel monster, who had hired Wade to deliver her?

Dracula wanted the monster queen's inheritance and paid Wade to fetch her coffin; she fell for the courier instead and married him.

Which Deadpool catchphrase did Ryan Reynolds borrow as the name of his production company?

Maximum Effort began as Wade's catchphrase in the 2016 film; in 2021 Reynolds sold the company's advertising arm to the ad-tech firm MNTN and became its chief creative officer.

Which 2004 team-up series paired Wade with his former enemy Nathan Summers?

Cable & Deadpool ran for 50 issues, teaming the grim time-traveller with the wisecracking mercenary who had once been hired to kill him.

Cable is the son of Cyclops and which character, a clone of Jean Grey?

Madelyne Pryor's baby was infected with a techno-organic virus and sent to the far future, where it could be held in check; he came back as the soldier Cable.

What is Domino's mutant power?

Probability control fits the name: her co-creator reasoned that dominoes is a game of chance, so luck simply breaks her way.

Ryan Reynolds first played Wade Wilson in which 2009 film?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine sewed the Merc with a Mouth's mouth shut; Deadpool 2 takes revenge in its credits, sending Wade back in time to shoot that version.

What finally persuaded 20th Century Fox to greenlight the 2016 Deadpool film?

Leaked test footage ended two years of stalling: the studio had sat on the CGI reel since 2012, then greenlit the film about a month after fans cheered it online.

Who directed the 2016 Deadpool film, his feature directorial debut?

Tim Miller co-founded the effects studio Blur, which animated the film's joke opening titles; he left the sequel over creative differences with its star.

Deadpool beat which 2003 sequel's worldwide R-rated box-office record?

The Matrix Reloaded's $742 million had stood since 2003; Deadpool beat it on a budget cut so late that the writers had Wade forget his guns to avoid filming a shoot-out.

Which writing duo, fresh from Zombieland, scripted the 2016 Deadpool film?

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick spent years pushing the script past a wary studio, and the film's joke opening credits bill them as 'The Real Heroes Here'.

Who plays Wade's girlfriend Vanessa in the films?

Morena Baccarin's Vanessa has no powers on screen, but in the comics she is the shapeshifting mutant Copycat; the writers chose to de-power her.

Ed Skrein's villain in the 2016 Deadpool film goes by Ajax, but what real first name does Wade insist on using?

Francis is the name Ajax hates: when Wade learns it and mocks him, Ajax locks him in the airtight chamber that finally triggers his mutation.

Which two X-Men accompany Deadpool in the 2016 film?

Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are the only two around, so Reynolds ad-libbed that the studio couldn't afford another X-Man, which was true.

Which comedian plays Wade's bartender friend Weasel in the first two films?

T.J. Miller's Weasel runs the mercenaries' bar and bets on Wade in its 'dead pool', the wager on who will die next that gives the hero his name.

The post-credits scene of the 2016 Deadpool film parodies which 1980s comedy?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off ends with Ferris telling the audience to go home; Wade copies the scene in a bathrobe, then announces Cable for the sequel.

In which city was the 2016 Deadpool film shot?

Vancouver is also Ryan Reynolds's home town, and the city lent the production its Georgia Viaduct for two weeks, where the crew shot rain or shine.

Ryan Reynolds received a Golden Globe nomination for Deadpool in which category?

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy went instead to Ryan Gosling, as La La Land swept a record seven Globes; Deadpool was also up for best comedy or musical film.

Who directed Deadpool 2 after the first film's director walked away over creative differences?

David Leitch got the job because Reynolds admired how his John Wick, co-directed without credit, made a tight budget look many times more expensive.

Which actor plays the time-travelling soldier Cable in Deadpool 2?

Josh Brolin won the role as a surprise contender after scheduling ruled out Brad Pitt, and signed a four-film deal to play the time-travelling soldier.

What happens to most of the X-Force team Deadpool assembles in Deadpool 2?

They die skydiving: every recruit but Domino is killed on landing, and the invisible Vanisher is revealed as Brad Pitt at the instant he dies.

Which villain in Deadpool 2 is voiced by Ryan Reynolds himself?

Juggernaut is credited as playing 'himself', but Reynolds supplied the voice, digitally deepened, as well as the facial capture.

What was the PG-13 re-cut of Deadpool 2, with Fred Savage in a framing device, titled?

Once Upon a Deadpool has Wade retell the film to a grown-up Fred Savage as a bedtime story, restaging the scenes Savage played as a boy in The Princess Bride.

Which singer recorded the original song 'Ashes' for Deadpool 2?

Céline Dion sings it straight on her Las Vegas stage while 'Deadpool' dances around her in high heels, performed by dancer Yanis Marshall.

Which 2019 film took the worldwide R-rated box-office record from the Deadpool films?

Joker became the first R-rated film to pass $1 billion, six weeks after release, and held the record until Deadpool & Wolverine won it back for the franchise in 2024.

Who directed Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)?

Shawn Levy was directing Reynolds in The Adam Project when the star asked him to take on the next Deadpool; they had already made Free Guy together.

Deadpool & Wolverine finished 2024 as the year's second-biggest film, behind which animated sequel?

Inside Out 2 took about $1.7 billion to Wade's $1.34 billion, so Disney, which inherited the foul-mouthed mercenary when it bought Fox, owned the year's top two films.

Who plays the villain Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Emma Corrin plays her as the twin sister of Charles Xavier; in the comics he sensed her evil in the womb and tried to kill her before either was born.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman finally wears what?

The yellow comic-book suit had been dodged since the 2000 X-Men film, which put the team in black leather and joked, 'What would you prefer, yellow spandex?'

Which organisation from the series Loki plays a central role in Deadpool & Wolverine?

The TVA polices the timeline, and its agent Mr. Paradox tells Wade his universe is dying because it has lost its 'anchor being', Wolverine.

Which actor cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine as Johnny Storm rather than his more famous Marvel role?

Chris Evans is framed to look like Captain America arriving, then turns out to be Johnny Storm, the Human Torch he first played in 2005's Fantastic Four.

Which Welsh football club does Ryan Reynolds co-own with Rob McElhenney?

Wrexham has since won three straight promotions to reach the Championship, and striker Paul Mullin cameoed in Deadpool & Wolverine as the variant 'Welshpool'.

Which DC superhero did Ryan Reynolds play in a 2011 film that Deadpool later mocks relentlessly?

Green Lantern gets its comeuppance in Deadpool 2's credits, when Wade travels back in time and shoots Reynolds just as he finishes reading the script.

What does Dopinder, Wade's devoted admirer in the Deadpool films, do for a living?

Taxi driver Dopinder becomes Wade's unofficial chauffeur; in Deadpool 2 he finishes off the mutant-hating headmaster by running him over in his cab.

Which artist, later famous for Battle Chasers and the Darksiders games, pencilled Deadpool's first solo miniseries in 1993?

Joe Madureira pencilled The Circle Chase early in a career that took him to Uncanny X-Men and then out of comics to found the studio behind Darksiders.

Which writer's 2008 relaunch revived a 'flatlined' Deadpool and gave him two inner voices in separate caption boxes?

Daniel Way was told only to 'get a pulse', and answered with a white caption box for what Wade really thinks and a yellow one for what he wants you to believe.

Which NSYNC hit soundtracks Wade's dance through the opening credits of Deadpool & Wolverine?

Bye Bye Bye plays while dancer Nick Pauley, in costume, performs the routine; NSYNC then retitled the song's official video after the film.

In Kelly Thompson's 2019 run, Deadpool becomes king of Marvel's monsters, who have relocated where?

Staten Island becomes his kingdom when a contract to kill the monsters' king hands him the crown under monster law, and Kraven the Hunter soon comes hunting.

Which Japanese horror mangaka did writer Alyssa Wong cite as a key influence on the 2022 body-horror Deadpool run?

Junji Ito's Tomie, about a girl who regenerates however often she is murdered, was the model for making Wade's unkillable body horrifying.

In Deadpool Killustrated, Wade invades the 'Ideaverse' to kill whom?

Classic literary characters die because he decides they inspired Marvel's own: Captain Ahab falls as the model for General Ross before Sherlock Holmes rallies a resistance.

Who voices the masked Ladypool in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Blake Lively, Reynolds's wife, supplied the voice while a stuntwoman wore the costume, and two of the couple's children voiced Kidpool and Babypool.

Peggy, the Dogpool of Deadpool & Wolverine, first found fame by winning which unflattering title?

Britain's ugliest dog was the 2023 title that put Peggy, a pug and Chinese crested cross, on television. Ryan Reynolds said she trained for the film longer than his co-star did.

In Deadpool (2016), Wade takes his alias from a board at Weasel's bar where mercenaries bet on what?

Who dies next is the bet, a game known as a dead pool, and Weasel puts his money on Wade. The scarred mercenary simply takes the name as his own.

In Deadpool 2, which arcade keepsake from Vanessa stops the bullet Wade takes for young Russell?

A Skee-Ball token was Vanessa's anniversary gift and the last thing Wade has of her. Cable jumps back a few minutes in time and straps it over his heart.

Ryan Reynolds wanted Deadpool after a comic likened Wade's face to the actor crossed with which dog?

A Shar-Pei is the wrinkled breed Wade names in the comics when he describes his scarred looks. The joke had hooked Reynolds by 2004, twelve years before the film finally opened.

Which star, once considered for Cable, flashes up as the invisible Vanisher in Deadpool 2?

Brad Pitt filmed the blink-and-miss cameo in two hours for the union minimum, plus a Starbucks coffee that Ryan Reynolds had to hand over in person.

The makers of Deadpool & Wolverine asked Madonna for which of her hits, and got notes on the scene?

Like a Prayer scores a key action sequence that Ryan Reynolds first pictured in 2020 or 2021. Madonna gave her notes, yet declined to let the song onto the soundtrack album.

Stan Lee's cameo in Deadpool (2016) casts the Marvel legend as the announcer at which kind of venue?

A strip club is where he works as the emcee. He could not film a cameo for Deadpool 2, so his likeness appears there as a bust in the X-Mansion and as graffiti on a wall.

A Deadpool guest spot in a Marvel cartoon is credited with coining which piece of online slang?

Unalive was Deadpool's stand-in for the word kill when he guest-starred in an animated series. Mainstream social media adopted it over the 2020s.

The crude popcorn bucket sold for Deadpool & Wolverine spoofed a viral bucket from which other film?

Dune: Part Two had a popcorn bucket that went viral earlier in 2024. Marvel answered with a clawed hero's head and a comically oversized mouth, which Kevin Feige promised would be intentionally crude.

Deadpool (2016) overtook which 2003 sequel as the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide?

The Matrix Reloaded had held the record for thirteen years. Joker raised the bar again in 2019, becoming the first R-rated film to gross a billion dollars.

Whose 1981 hit version of Angel of the Morning plays over the opening credits of Deadpool (2016)?

Juice Newton took the ballad into the American top ten. In the film it plays while the camera drifts through a single suspended moment inside a crashing car.

Which mixed martial artist turned actress plays the super-strong Angel Dust in Deadpool (2016)?

Gina Carano took the part after a personal phone call from the director. She wanted coloured contact lenses to match the printed character, but the makeup designer said they belonged in a Twilight film.

Which Tony winner, once Kizzy in Roots, plays Wade's roommate Blind Al in the Deadpool films?

Leslie Uggams played Blind Al in each of the first three films. She described the character as old but feisty, with a past in British Intelligence and a love-hate bond with her housemate.

The final battle of Deadpool (2016) rages across the wreck of which craft, lying in a scrapyard?

A helicarrier wreck let the film nod to the wider Marvel world. To avoid a rights clash with Marvel Studios, it was designed to look as unlike the one in The Avengers as possible.

Deadpool (2016) has Wade Wilson dishonourably discharged from which country's special forces?

Canada gave the world both Wade Wilson and the actor who plays him. The comics also make the character a mercenary from that country.

Deadpool 2 locks Wade and young Russell inside which remote prison built for mutant criminals?

The Ice Box fits its inmates with collars that suppress their powers. Early scripts had a break-in make every collar fail at once, an idea dropped as too costly to film.

Which New Zealand star of Hunt for the Wilderpeople plays the teenage mutant Russell in Deadpool 2?

Julian Dennison was the only actor considered. Ryan Reynolds insisted on him after seeing that earlier film, and the part was tailor-made for him.

Which NSYNC hit soundtracks the dance-and-fight opening credits of Deadpool & Wolverine?

Bye Bye Bye plays as Wade copies moves from the song's music video in mid-fight. NSYNC later retitled the official video to name the film.

Which actor returned as Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine, two decades after his last film in the role?

Wesley Snipes earned two Guinness World Records for the comeback, including the longest career as a live-action Marvel character. He had assumed the part was gone for good.

Which actress, who married Ryan Reynolds in 2012, voices Ladypool in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Blake Lively also changed the ending: she suggested hiding the heroes' fate for a moment to add suspense. Two of the couple's children voice other Deadpool variants.

Channing Tatum plays which mutant in Deadpool & Wolverine, years after his own solo film collapsed?

Gambit was to be his solo film from 2014, but the project sat in development limbo until its cancellation in 2019. A scene showing the character surviving the new story was shot as well.

Which actress plays Elektra again in Deadpool & Wolverine, nineteen years after her own spin-off?

Jennifer Garner first played the sai-wielding fighter opposite Ben Affleck in 2003's Daredevil. The new film's joke about the couple's divorce was cleared with her before it went in.

Which former Superman star makes a surprise cameo as a variant of Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Henry Cavill appears for a moment as a clawed variant nicknamed the Cavillrine. He is one of the alternate versions the film cycles through while Wade hunts for a replacement hero.

When Deadpool & Wolverine begins, a retired Wade Wilson is working in which everyday job?

Used-car salesman is the job he shares with an old X-Force teammate. He has retired from the mask and split from Vanessa by the time agents seize him at his birthday party.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, which Iron Man ally interviews Wade for the Avengers and turns him down?

Happy Hogan is played once more by Jon Favreau. The writers wanted Tony Stark himself in the scene as well, but his actor declined after reading it.

Which Succession star plays Mr. Paradox, the scheming time bureaucrat of Deadpool & Wolverine?

Matthew Macfadyen saw the character as untrustworthy rather than villainous: a man who would love to be a supervillain but is stuck with the mundane job of monitoring timelines.

A running gag in Deadpool 2 has Wade insist that a song from which Disney hit copies one from Yentl?

Frozen is the butt of the gag. After Disney agreed to buy Fox, the studio made the producers cut a different joke that mentioned the deal itself.

Which disguised star plays a redneck in Deadpool 2 and is credited under the alias Dickie Greenleaf?

Matt Damon borrowed the alias from his 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley. He and Alan Tudyk play two men debating a toilet-paper manifesto when Cable arrives from the future.

Which star of the series Atlanta plays Domino, the mercenary recruited to X-Force, in Deadpool 2?

Zazie Beetz played her as an only child who falls into a sibling-style sparring match with Wade. Ryan Reynolds announced the casting himself in March 2017.

Which dish, a running Deadpool joke, did Ryan Reynolds serve from a truck before Super Bowl 50?

Chimichangas came out of a taco truck that the star ran on the Friday before the game. The next day a site near the stadium was dressed up as the bar from the film.

A late budget cut made the writers of Deadpool (2016) have Wade forget what before the final battle?

His bag of guns stays behind, which spared the production a costly third-act gunfight. The same trim removed a motorcycle chase and about nine pages of script.

Which major film market refused Deadpool (2016) a release over its violence and nudity?

China often takes cleaned-up versions of R-rated American films, but this one was judged impossible to trim without harming the plot. It finally screened there uncut at a Beijing festival in 2018.

Rights issues stopped Deadpool (2016) tying Wade's comic sidekick Bob to which villainous group?

Hydra goes unmentioned because Marvel Studios owned the rights to Bob and would not permit his use. The film gives his cameo a new past as a special-forces veteran like Wade.

Mr. Paradox banishes the heroes of Deadpool & Wolverine to which wasteland at the end of time?

The Void is overseen by Cassandra Nova, who struck a deal with the agency that banishes people there. A creature called Alioth consumes whoever she discards.

Cassandra Nova's arena in Deadpool & Wolverine is built from the giant corpse of which Avenger?

Ant-Man can grow to enormous size, which is why his remains are large enough to house her court. The arena set was extended so that it sat inside the corpse.

The actor cast as Cable in Deadpool 2 also plays which villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Thanos had to share his actor, who signed a four-film deal as Cable. He trained three hours a day for weeks and gave up sugar to look the part.

In the opening of Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade kills a squad of agents using what, dug from a grave?

A hero's skeleton does the job: the bones belong to this world's dead clawed mutant and are still laced with adamantium. Wade had hoped to revive him and save their timeline.

Which actor-musician was hired with his brother to run an animated Deadpool series that FXX dropped?

Donald Glover and his brother Stephen had a full series order from 2017. Stephen later said the last straw for the network was an episode built around a famous pop star.

In the Deadpool comics, Wade's lover Vanessa Carlysle is a shape-shifter with which codename?

Copycat never appears in the films, whose writers wanted the focus kept on Wade. The makeup designer still slipped in nods to her blue skin on the printed page.

To alter a trainee's powers in Deadpool (2016), Fox handed Marvel Studios which character?

Ego the Living Planet was wanted by James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The swap let Fox turn the trainee's telepathy from the comics into explosive blasts.

Which actor was cut from Deadpool (2016), then voiced the floating Headpool in the third film?

Nathan Fillion filmed a scene as a bathroom attendant that survives only among the deleted scenes on the home release. Eight years later he returned as the voice of a bodiless head.

The X-Men's brief cameo behind a door in Deadpool 2 was filmed during the making of which film?

Dark Phoenix was shooting in Montreal at the same time. Its director filmed the team through an open door, and visual effects dropped the shot into the mansion.

The 2013 Deadpool video game opens with Wade bombing which studio, the game's real developer?

High Moon Studios rejects his pitch in the story, so he sets off explosives until it gives in. Later he burns through the budget and the game drops into 8-bit graphics.

Which sitcom star voices Wade Wilson in the 2025 virtual-reality game Marvel's Deadpool VR?

Neil Patrick Harris plays a Wade enlisted by the villain Mojo to kidnap other villains for a reality show. Lost limbs slowly grow back, and can be swung as weapons in the meantime.

Which composer, alias Junkie XL, built the score of Deadpool (2016) around 1980s synthesisers?

Tom Holkenborg noticed that Wade only ever refers to music from before 1990, so he reached for vintage instruments such as the Oberheim and the Synclavier.

The first poster for Deadpool 2 restaged Freedom from Want, a 1943 work by which American painter?

Norman Rockwell's picture of a family Thanksgiving dinner is one of his most famous works. The sequel's first teaser video followed the poster a week later.

Which Sin City director was asked to make Deadpool in 2010, read the script, then lost interest?

Robert Rodriguez called the script really good, but had lost interest within months. The job went the next year to a visual-effects artist who had never directed a feature.

An April Fools' video for Deadpool (2016) showed Wade apparently murdering which host of Extra?

Mario Lopez had just been told on air that the film would be family friendly. The stunt was the campaign's way of confirming that it would be rated R.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, the two heroes fight a bloody battle in the back of which family car?

Honda Odyssey is the minivan, and the fight is jokingly framed like a love scene. The camera finally settles on a Coexist bumper sticker.

Which voice actor, famous as the hero of the Uncharted games, plays Wade in the 2013 Deadpool game?

Nolan North is hired within the story itself, after Wade strong-arms the developers into making his game. He has also voiced the character in cartoons, pinball tables and fighting games.