‘Deadpool 2’ casts ‘Atlanta’ Star as Domino
I have a lot of stories on our publication, DefinePrint, and in any given piece there’s a chance that I mention how Atlanta was the best show on television in 2016. Even if it doesn’t make sense, I’ll give props to the show because it deserves every praise. The cast is phenomenal and they’re getting their dues while Atlanta is on hiatus until 2018. Donald Glover is being elevated to superstar and Lakeith Stanfield had a memorable and meme-able part to play in 2017’s best movie (so far). But those two aren’t the only one’s whose dance cards are filling up.
Fan-favorite, Zazie Beetz, has been added to the cast of Deadpool 2 as the badass mercenary, Domino.
Largely known as a member of the X-Force and being lover to Cable, Domino is a mutant with the ability to subconsciously and psionically initiate random telekinetic acts that push the odds in her favor by making improbable things occur whenever she takes action. Yeah, that felt confusing even for a comic book character.
Basically, it means she emits a field that gives her good luck, her opponents bad luck and would be your first-overall pick in this years’ NFL draft or any other draft. The writing for Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool practically writes itself by adding this character.
This is welcome news for a production that has seen it’s small share of setbacks. Director T.J. Miller, from the first Deadpool, dropped out due to creative differences with Reynolds. They also have not filled out the role of Cable, a character important to this sequel. Pierce Brosnan, Michael Shannon and Kyle Chandler (Texas Forever) have been rumored for the role, but there has yet to be an actor locked down.
The first Deadpool was a box office smash grossing $760 million to date so the bar is set for this sequel and will be Beetz’ biggest role to date. She has shown great chemistry with Glover during Atlanta, but really shined during her character Van’s standalone episode: “Value.” It’s also great that Zazie adds a little diversity as a woman (a black woman no less) who doesn’t need saving.
Marvel Studios has been doing there thing for a while and D.C. is hoping to gain traction soon. 20th Century Fox, however, has been spinning their wheels with X-Men movies that balk at continuity, can’t seem to figure out what to do with the Fantastic Four, failed so hard at the Spider-Man reboot they had to give it back to Marvel Studios just to save the character’s movie cred, and are prepping for life after Hugh Jackman.
Deadpool has been their R-rated sugar daddy over the past year while Logan (another R-rated masterpiece) has quite possibly redefined the genre*. Deadpool 2 is poised to be another R-rated feature to adjust the limits of a superhero flick. What 20th could be looking at here, is there own Trinity in the mold of D.C.’s Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Except, you know, with more F-bombs and decapitations.
*I can’t emphasis how beautiful and truly terrific Logan is. Go see it if you haven’t.
I’m confident that Zazie Beetz can carry her own film series. Get a star actor to portray Cable (I’m in the Jon Hamm as Cable camp, he should be headlining a blockbuster franchise by now) and there’s a recipe to do something that’s similar to other Universes, but also still different. There’s also not prior incarnations like Batman and Wonder Woman to live up to. It can be their own thing as long as they appease comic book nerds.
If Domino and Cable’s characters hit, we could be looking at a 10x better Punisher-type movie and the Black Widow-type movie all superhero movie fans have craved for years.
In the meantime, let’s all enjoy the talented Zazie Beetz make more magic.
