Why Kissing Ryan Reynolds Was Anything But Romantic — And How Deadpool and Vanessa Compare to the Comics

Deadpool sells itself as a love story with a lot of swearing and severed limbs, but the real-life romance of making it? Not exactly swoony. Morena Baccarin has been refreshingly blunt about what it was actually like kissing Ryan Reynolds in full Deadpool getup, and it quietly explains a lot about why Vanessa reads the way she does on screen.

The romance is real; the smooching... less so

Back when she was out promoting Deadpool 2 in 2018, Baccarin didn't sugarcoat the logistics of making out with a guy whose face is 90% rubber mask. It looks romantic in the edit. On set, it was more like this:

"I keep saying that kissing him in that mask is like kissing a giant latex c*ndom. It basically just smells like rubber the entire time."

She also talked about how acting opposite Reynolds while his face was covered made emotional connection tougher. All of which is kind of perfect for Deadpool, because as much as Wade jokes through everything, Vanessa is the thing that grounds him. That push-pull between big feelings and a guy literally hidden behind a mask is baked into the character, and fans still read him through that lens.

Vanessa in the comics is a whole different ride

If you only know Vanessa from the movies, the comics version is darker, weirder, and way messier. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Greg Capullo, she first showed up in 1990's New Mutants #98 posing as Domino (we later learn that was Vanessa in disguise), and her first proper appearance as Vanessa/Copycat followed in X-Force a bit later. She's a mutant shapeshifter with blue skin, red eyes, and the ability to mimic others down to their powers. Her story with Wade goes places:

• Raised tough after being disowned, Vanessa survives on her own and eventually meets Wade while working as a sex worker. They fall hard for each other, even as his merc life puts her in the crosshairs.
• Wade's cancer diagnosis blows everything up. He bails to protect her, tells her he doesn't love her, and breaks her heart.
• Vanessa becomes a mercenary too. Under orders, she infiltrates Cable's team by impersonating Domino, and when she's told to bomb her X-Force teammates, she refuses.
• She and Wade collide as both allies and enemies. It gets brutal: Deadpool hunts her, stabs her, and nearly kills her before Wolverine steps in.
• Vanessa later finds love with Garrison Kane and tries to retire, but Weapon X pulls her back in and manipulates her.
• It ends tragically: Sabretooth mortally wounds her, and she dies in Wade's arms.
• Comics being comics, she eventually turns up alive again years later, choosing a life away from Deadpool.

Why Vanessa is barely in Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine rockets Wade into the MCU with multiverse chaos, cameos, and two-hour fireworks. What it doesn't have a ton of is Vanessa. Baccarin addressed that in 2024 on The Playlist's The Discourse podcast while promoting her thriller Elevation, first cracking:

"Yeah, I was hardly onset. That was the big difference."

Then she explained the vibe shift: the first Deadpool was a scrappy, risky love story that happened to be a superhero movie. Moving under Disney and Marvel meant a bigger machine and a movie built for scale, not intimacy.

"It was a huge film in general. You know, Marvel is a big studio and they do things a certain way."

So yeah, the romance takes a back seat this time. Vanessa is still Wade's moral/emotional North Star, but the story is chasing bigger swings. Whether that trade works probably comes down to how much you want Copycat-level chaos in the MCU versus keeping Vanessa as the earthbound constant.

Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine are streaming on Disney+.