Most of the cast and crew of Deadpool 2 were on hand at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con to promote the release of the popular sequel’s “uncut” version on Blu-ray and DVD. Festivities and clever marketing notwithstanding, one of the first things that came up in a group interview with Yahoo! Entertainment was the “fridging” criticism that was levied against the film not long after its release date last May. To his credit, star Ryan Reynolds responded to the question by calling the criticism “fair” and acknowledging its place in the creation of future Deadpool films.
“I think it’s fair,” Reynolds told Yahoo of the matter, which concerned the film’s (mis)use of Morena Baccarin’s character Vanessa. While her capture by the villain served as a third act motivator in the first movie, Vanessa’s early death in Deadpool 2 fell squarely into the bounds of what comic book writer Gail Simone calls “fridging,” a trope by which women in comics [are] killed off to service the journey of a male character.”
“To be honest, [the feedback is] where I learned about it,” Reynolds continued. “But, I think it is fair. One of the things [we considered when] we were coming up with the storyline for [Deadpool 2] was ‘how do we take everything away from this guy?'”:
“The only thing he really has is her so it was tough. And she’s certainly a through-line throughout the movie but I don’t think that really necessarily excuses that. You always want to push forward and really make sure that your characters are front and center and really have strong interior lives and pushing the a-plot forward too. I think it was fair.”
Never one to pass up an opportunity for humor, no matter how serious it might be, Reynolds made sure to self-deprecate via the problematic trope when Deadpool 2 colleague Zazie Beetz was asked about a possible Domino spin-off film. “You should fridge Deadpool,” he suggested.
(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)