After years of being stuck in development hell, Deadpool is now miraculously coming together, and with production about to hit the ground running, that means it's in the final stages of its casting process. As things stand, the movie has a rather great ensemble that includes Ryan Reynolds, T.J. Miller, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein and Gina Carano, but today news has come out that the production has added another actor to its ranks, with newcomer Brianna Hildebrand coming aboard to play a mutant with one of the best names ever.
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop that Hildebrand has joined the cast of Deadpool to play the role of Negasonic Teenage Warhead - a telepathic, precognitive, goth-styled mutant with a name inspired by a Monster Magnet song (who also happens to have one seriously dark arc in the comics). The source sadly doesn't have any information regarding how we can expect the character to fit into the movie's plot, though if we look at previous casting reports - where she was identified as "Kathy" - we get a good idea of her personality:
Any ethnicity, early to mid teens. World weary, great sense of comedic timing, sarcastic, droll sense of humor. ROLE REQUIRES THREE SERIES OPTIONS.
Some of you may struggle to recall a Marvel Comics character named Negasonic Teenage Warhead, but that's probably because she didn't exactly have a long lifespan. Created by Grant Morrison and first appearing in X-Men comics back in 2001, the character was born Ellie Phimister and was a student living in the fictional city of Genosha (a location with a fairly rough history in the comics where mutants are concerned). While in a telepathy class, she explains to her teacher (who happens to be Emma Frost) that she has been haunted by a repeated nightmare that shows her every citizen of Genosha being exterminated. This prediction wound up being true, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead was killed during a Sentinel invasion.
We can presume that the adaptation of the character in Deadpool to not follow this path, as it simply doesn't fit in with anything we've heard about the film. Of course, that just begs the question about exactly what kind of part she will play. She's not going to be the Merc with the Mouth's sidekick, as that position has already been filled by T.J. Miller's Weasel. Instead, I can imagine her being one of the "patients" who is trapped with Deadpool in the same facility where he is experimented on, driven insane, and gains healing powers.
As for the actress playing the of Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Brianna Hildebrand doesn't have any released credits to look to, though she has reportedly completed work on a feature called Prism. You can get a look at her below, thanks to an audition tape that she posted online for a part in the upcoming horror/action movie Scouts vs. Zombies.
This certainly won't be the last bit of casting we hear about Deadpool, as there are still some big roles that need to be filled (I'm specifically thinking about Blind Al, the titular character's elderly woman hostage/roommate). Stay tuned as more details roll in, and look for the film in theaters on February 12, 2016.
