Did “Deadpool 2” Waste the X-Force?

Deadpool 2 centered much of its marketing on the movie’s inclusion of the superhero team X-Force, which have already been approved for a spin-off film; however, some viewers feel as if the group, and the idea of Deadpool joining a team, were wasted in this entry. (Warning: spoilers to follow!)

In the movie, Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds, who is also a writer and producer) assembles the team in order to protect Russell (Julian Dennison), a teenage mutant who can start fires, from Cable (Josh Brolin), a soldier from the future. The team includes Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård) and in a surprising bit of casting, Brad Pitt as Vanisher.

All of those characters die. In one sequence, when they’re parachuting and get blown off course (into oncoming buses, helicopter blades and so on) due to Deadpool’s poor planning. Normal human Peter (Rob Delaney) also dies, though at least gets saved in the post-credits sequence. Otherwise, the only surviving member is Domino (Zazie Beetz), who will be apparently be joining Deadpool, Cable and possibly Peter in the aforementioned spin-off movie.

On the one hand, killing off so many seemingly-important characters so flippantly seems in line with Deadpool‘s brand of dark but silly humor. And, let’s face it, it’s also realistic; you shouldn’t accept a job offer from Wade “Deadpool” Wilson and expect to live long enough to collect your 401(k).

Then again, one could also argue that it falls to a level of nihilism, and also proves to be a waste of characters who could provide interesting stories; Shatterstar in particular is notable in the comic books and closely associated with the X-Force team. Presumably the X-Force movie will have to introduce a whole new group of characters to fill out its roster, assuming that they, too, don’t come down with a sudden case of the deaths, reveals screenrant.com.

The sequence (which admittedly most viewers found rather funny on its own) could also be said to undermine the main theme of the movie. When Deadpool’s fiancée Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) dies early in the film, he has to learn to let go and find new loved ones, in the form of Russell and his new team. That’s a hard impression to make when he neither mourns nor even mentions them after watching them die so quickly.