Almost a year ago, just before Deadpool was released, Ryan Reynolds said he’d be interested in exploring the character’s sexuality, and possibly getting him a boyfriend. However, while there were quips in the movie suggesting Pool wasn’t averse to crushing on guys, he wasn’t quite the full-on pansexual character he is in the comics.
Following the film’s huge success, Fox quickly put a sequel into the works, but some wondered whether with tens of millions at stake, it would make them more nervous about exploring the character’s sexuality in future Deadpool movies. Thankfully though, Reynolds says the franchise is still open to it.
Reynolds tells Variety, “What love is to Deadpool may not be what love is to Batman or someone else. I think that could be played up more. He’s an outsider in every way, shape, and form.”
Oddly the fact the first movie was banned in China might actually help the films to be more open about Deadpool’s pansexuality. One of the reasons Hollywood is reluctant to have LGBT-inclusion in its biggest movies is because they fear being banned or affecting the box office in less gay-friendly countries, especially the increasingly important Chinese market.
“That’s not really a problem for us,” Reynolds adds, “Because we were banned in China. We were rated ‘f— you!’ in China…
“The only thing that you have to consider going forward is, ‘Are we being faithful to the canon that we nurtured and created?’. One of those things is that Deadpool is in love with Vanessa. Deadpool isn’t in love with Vanessa just because she’s a woman. He’s in love with Vanessa because he loves her.”
That suggests that at least in the short term, Deadpool’s main romantic interest will remain a woman, but it’ll be interesting to see if 2018’s Deadpool 2 finds room to play up the breadth of the character’s sexuality, or whether we’ll have to wait for later movies. However, if Ryan really wants to stay true to the comic books, they should try to make things a little more overt.