A special message from the desk of thurston deadpool, III, esquire

DRESSED FOR SUPERHERO SUCCESS

Costume designers Kurt Swanson & Bart Mueller most recently designed costumes for “Ghost in the Shell” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” - Parts 1 and 2.

Kurt says he loved Deadpool’s costume from the first film and that, “Ryan didn’t want to mess with that too much.” Fans probably won’t recognize the slight modifications, he says, which include a slight change to the pattern of the red on the suit: “We made it a bit shiner, stuff like that. We added brushed metal to his gloves and belt and greaves.” Bart adds, “The biggest changes were functional changes.”

As for Cable, Kurt says, “The script dictated a lot. We get to see him in this future setting, which is great because it’s more the sci-fi soldier kind of thing. But he is coming from the future back to present day in what we called his travel suit. Once he gets here, he has no clothing so he ends up getting it from the Army-Navy store, cobbling together not only weapons, but also his outfits. He has


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very basic things – his T-shirt, military pants, boots, all of that – that fall in line with who Cable is in the comics. The most iconic thing about him, really, is his silver arm.” Cable’s cybernetic arm is a visual effect. Bart says, “The whole silhouette ended up looking super, remaining true to the icon of the comic.”

Kurt recalls showing their initial Domino concepts to Reynolds. “I don’t think we necessarily just wanted her in the shiny black catsuit, like she’s drawn. When Ryan first came in and saw some of the designs we’d done he thought she looked very slick, which is also how she looks in the comics. He wanted to introduce her to the world as a much more rogue character and have more of a street-cred thing.” Bart says, “The aesthetic feels earthy. It’s soulful and there’s something kind of retro about it, too. I think she’s a knockout.” Beetz says, “I love how she looks, but I don’t think people realize that wearing her outfit is massively uncomfortable.

Every part of my body fought that suit. My knees and feet hurt, and it was hard to breathe. I did stunts with a boned corset on – there was no stretch, it was all leather, so there was no breathing. Everything was tight.”
There were a huge number of background performers to dress for the prison scenes.

Bart says, “It’s always fun when you’re doing something like the prison, where you can use your background to be part of the set in a way because everybody’s wearing the same thing. It’s also really

interesting to see how different characters would wear the same costume in a different way.”

Kurt says, “The first film seemed like this scrappy little film, I think it’s one of the things that really appealed to the fans. And I think that spirit is in this film.” Bart adds, “Even just the creation of X-Force, it’s a way scrappier bunch, cobbled together. It’s not the super slick.”

Kurt and Bart worked closely with production designer Scheunemann. When they joined the production, work was already underway to design the characters and the overall look of the film. “David [Scheunemann] is a great collaborator,” says Bart. “He was working closely with one of our favourite concept artists [Stian Dahlslett]. So even though we hadn’t worked together before, we kind of shared a language. There was an immediate and fluid exchange of visual ideas.”

Bart adds, “What I love about David [Leitch] is this is a big action comedy, but it’s super important for him to have visually super strong film. With Sela and Scheunemann, it’s really stylized and it doesn’t look like a regular big action comedy.”

Makeup designer, Bill Corso, had also worked on the first film, during which the Wade Wilson scar make up could take up to four hours to apply. For “Deadpool 2,” he redesigned and reengineered Reynold’s make up so it could be applied in one hour and 45 minutes.

Because Cable’s body is being attacked by a cybernetic organism, parts of him are mechanized and robotic, and his look is a hybrid of traditional make up and CG. Brolin’s makeup application took several hours every day. Corso says, “Cable’s a soldier who’s been through battles and war, so we wanted to give a little grit and reality to it, which is obviously something that Josh brings to the role.” As the look of Cable was being designed, all the key creatives weighed in: wardrobe, props, weapons, stunts. Corso quips, “We created a character that’s essentially designed to destroy a makeup! Josh had a whole fake neck on, all robotic. He wore straps and gun belts and flipped around.” He adds, “A lot of our job was creating a work of art in the

morning, and the rest of the day, chasing it and repairing it and trying to make it look like a work of art until the end of the day.”
The gun Cable builds in “Deadpool 2” was inspired by a beloved toy that prop master Dan Sissons always wanted to have

as a kid. Sissons says, “It had seven functions, and we thought it would be fun if Cable’s weapons had seven functions as well.”

When Cable travels to our time, his futuristic weapon doesn’t work. So he loads up at an army surplus store, and builds his own weapon from a 50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle; a Thompson machine gun; an AK-47; a vector; a 9mm submachine gun; grenade launchers; scopes; sites; high capacity flashlight; and

many other things. The most important device on the weapon is the power knob – it normally goes to 10, but Cable has adapted it to 11!

The actual gun weighed 28 pounds and was difficult to hold. Subsequently, a lighter version was fashioned out of rubber, weighing 14 pounds. Ultimately, a third version was made, which was much easier to manoeuvre, and it weighed seven pounds. All three versions make appearances in the movie, depending on the action.