The Merc with a Mouth is about to experience a Domino effect.
Yesterday on his official Twitter account, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds revealed that Zazie Beetz has been cast as Neena Thurman, better known to Marvel Comics fans as Domino in Deadpool 2, the sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool. Here's Reynolds' post on Twitter, which (of course) used dominoes to spell out Beetz's name.
In addition to Reynolds, Beetz joins returning Deadpool actors Brianna Hildebrand, T.J. Miller, Karan Soni, and Stefan Kapicic, each reprising their respective characters.Domino Effect. pic.twitter.com/ILEnTcW7fY— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 9, 2017
Beetz, 26, is a German-born actress best known as Vanessa on the FX television series Atlanta. She's also appeared in the Netflix series Easy and the movie Applesauce.
Neena Thurman is a mutant with the ability to subconsciously and psionically initiate random telekinetic acts that affect probability in her favor by making improbable (but not impossible) things occur within her line of sight, thus causing her to have "good luck" and her opponents to have "bad luck". She was the result of a top-secret government breeding program intended to develop the perfect weapon. Domino was the only test subject to survive, but her "luck" power was deemed a failure at meeting the project's goals. Her biological mother broke her out of the project and left her with Father Rudolpho Boschelli in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Chicago.
Domino eventually left the Church and became a mercenary. One of her first jobs was to stop "Operation: Jericho," which was a remote-controlled warbot project. Domino wrecked the robot, but in the process, fried the mind of the soldier controlling it. She was then assigned to guard the genius Dr. Milo Thurman, whose analytical ability made him too dangerous for the government to let roam free. Somehow, Domino and Thurman fell in love and were married. Due to Thurman's love of Dante's Inferno, he called Domino "Beatrice." The two separated after a raid on the facility by AIM members, with Milo believing Domino had been killed during the altercation.
Domino helped found the mercenary band the Six Pack, which introduced her to the mutant time-traveler Cable. Domino worked with the Six Pack for some time, taking on many missions for cash. The Six Pack was very brutal in their adventures, often shooting down entire crowds of people who got in their way. The team, also known as the Wild Pack, went on missions in Iran, and participated in a raid on a HYDRA base, which Domino participated in. During her time with the Wild Pack, she had her first confrontations with Stryfe (Cable's evil clone) in Afghanistan and Uruguay.
When Cable became the leader of the New Mutants following their break from the X-Men, an imposter Domino (actually Copycat) joined him as his field leader and stayed with the team as they changed from the New Mutants to X-Force. When it was revealed that the real Domino was actually a prisoner of the supervillain Tolliver for over a year, X-Force rejected the Domino imposter and, with Cable's reassurances, planned to rescue the real Domino and welcome her onto the team. The real Domino learned of Tolliver's destruction of X-Force's Adirondack base and planned her escape. Cable found her at Tolliver's Italian home, along with her apparently murdered double. Domino was accidentally freed by Deadpool, whom she shot. After Cable sent her to find X-Force, she escaped on Tolliver's helicopter and survived a fall from Tolliver's helicopter into the sea. She found X-Force and joined the team.
Beetz will be the first actress to portray Domino in live action, although the character has appeared in the animated projects X-Men (voiced by Jennifer Dale) and Wolverine and the X-Men (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo).
Deadpool 2 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on March 2, 2018.