Deadpool 2 drops us right back into Wade Wilson’s life, and he’s just as flirtatious, outrageous, and foul-mouthed as ever, and still manages to perfectly address Wade’s pansexual history. Throughout Deadpool and its sequel, Vanessa has been the love of Wade life, but the character is also known for being pansexual. For those not familiar, that means Wade Wilson is attracted to a person regardless of gender. For a long time, there’s been call for more LGBTQ characters in superhero franchises and while others have been slow (or entirely inactive) on this, Deadpool is leading the charge.

In Deadpool 2, Wade’s pansexuality is handled perfectly simply because it is never an issue. We know he loves Vanessa, but he’s also a terrible flirt and seems to have a thing for Colossus. This attraction comes up a couple of times in Deadpool 2. Wade admires his body several times, and Vanessa even has to remind him not to “sleep with the guy.” In return, Colossus doesn’t seem impervious to this attraction, either. Despite Wade’s treatment, he always sticks around and seems to welcome this affection. In the Marvel Ultimates series, Colossus is gay. Although his sexuality hasn’t been addressed so far in Deadpool, going forward, there’s always the possibility this could be explored more in X-Force movie.

Wade also holds exceptionally liberal views when it comes to sex. Not only is he open when talking about it, he’s also extremely experimental with Vanessa. Sure, sex with his heterosexual female partner might not be the most indicative of a pansexual lifestyle, but he does demonstrate his dearth of heteronormative hangups when he asks her to use a strap-on to “breed a super-baby” into him. She casually points out that’s not how it works, but there’s no sense of surprise, suggesting it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.

But it’s not just Wade’s pansexuality that is handled well. Deadpool 2 embraces its LGBTQ characters and presents them without fanfare. Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), who revels in being a thorn in Wade’s side, presents her adorable girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna), whom Wade immediately adores. Throughout the movie we see them together, most definitely a couple, but there’s never a big deal made out of it, as if Fox were ticking boxes. The relationship just is what it is, and in order for LGBTQ characters to successfully enter mainstream superhero movies, that’s exactly as it should be.

Going forward, into X-Force or Deadpool 3, there exists ample opportunity for the writers and director to expand upon Wade’s pansexuality and its inclusion of LGBTQ characters even more, but for now, Deadpool 2 has made a pretty impressive start.

  • X-Men: Dark Phoenix Release Date: 2019-06-07 New Mutants Release Date: 2020-08-28