‘Deadpool 2’ Writers On Criticism Over Treatment Of Female Characters

Deadpool 2 screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick recently talked about “fridging” the women characters of Deadpool 2. The term came from critic- turned-comic book writer Gail Simone after reading a Green Lantern issue where Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend was found murdered inside of a refrigerator.

Fridging has now become a common term for when a women character is killed or dies in order for the male lead to gain emotional value. This happens twice in the movie; First, Deadpool’s Girlfriend Vanessa and then Cable’s wife and daughter. In an article in Vulture, Reese explains that they were not aware of the possibility of fridging.

“I would say no, we didn’t even think about it. And that was maybe our mistake, not to think about it. But it didn’t really even occur to us.” Indeed, they weren’t aware of this genre of criticism. “We didn’t know what fridging was,” Reese says.

The Deadpool writer goes on to say that there were other scripts that they had where Vanessa dumped Deadpool and he was trying to earn her back.

 Deadpool 2 has a cast of strong female characters, a point Reese makes.

“I also think we definitely paid attention to trying to fill the movie with a diverse group of strong female characters, interesting, different female characters,” says Reese. “Whether it’s Domino, or Negasonic Teenage Warhead — and Vanessa, herself, obviously, is certainly that. So we’ve definitely made a point of not having this just be a testosterone-fueled thing.”

In the credits, there was a scene where Deadpool uses Cable’s time travel device to go back in time and save his late girlfriend. With a movie that revolves around a character as whimsical and unstructured as Deadpool, the plot can be changed accordingly.

Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapi?i? as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable and Julian Dennison as Russell.

Source: Vulture