So in true Deadpool fashion, Deadpool 2 plays with expectations with its villains. There isn’t really any one big baddie, although we once again get a reference to Nathaniel Essex, Mr. Sinister, who was teased at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, and who was nearly included in the upcoming New Mutants movie. Black Tom Cassidy, introduced in X-Men #99 (June 1976), is a powerful mutant who possesses the ability to manipulate energy, typically channeling thermokinetic blasts through his signature weapon, a wooden Irish shillelagh. Black Tom also happens to be the cousin of sometime X-Man Sean Cassidy, a.k.a. Banshee, with whom he ignited a familial rivalry over the late Maeve Rourke (with whom Banshee conceived a daughter, X-Force member Siryn). That relationship to Banshee isn’t mentioned anywhere in Deadpool 2. However, the scheming reprobate is probably best known as the brains in an iconic evil partnership with the magically-imbued villain, Juggernaut, who also fields a familial squabble with the X-Men as the step-brother of Professor Charles Xavier. But that connection to Juggernaut is loosely explored here, too. Juggernaut is definitely present and accounted for, and much more interesting than the version we saw in the generally awful X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006. Juggernaut was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby way back in X-Men #12, although he was always a mystically powered villain there and not a physical mutation as he is here. But unlike how they ignore Black Tom’s connection to Banshee, they make Juggernaut’s ties to Professor Xavier pretty explicit here. As an additional fun touch, Juggernaut is credited as being played by “himself” in the closing credits.
