Deadpool might be a superhero movie, but more than that, it's a revenge flick, plain and simple. Deadpool wants to find Ajax, the man who experimented on him, tortured and disfigured him, and kill him. Preferably after Ajax has cured Deadpool of his disfigurement. For a guy who spent months or years (or days?) being tortured in a dark warehouse with the fake promise of being turned into a mutant superhero, Deadpool's revenge scope is pretty small. But just because Deadpool doesn't care about going after the organization that wanted to sell him into super-human slavery, doesn't mean we don't. So, who does Ajax work for?
Based on the movie, you'd almost think Ajax just woke up one day with evil in his heart and a desire to torture people with terminal diseases, but that's not really how it happened. Here's what we know about Ajax based solely on the movie: like Wade, he was experimented on to activate a mutant gene that turned him into a super strong man who feels nothing. Literally. He feels no pain, no sadness, no happiness, nothing. So, basically, he's cold-hearted, violent, and a mad scientist, all rolled into one hot bod. (Come on, you know it's true.) That's it. That's all viewers know about him.
Deadpool had a lot of things never-before seen in a modern superhero movie: ridiculous dirty jokes, swearing, a sex montage, and, lest we forget, naked Ryan Reynolds fighting. But there was one thing that all other Marvel-inspired films have that Deadpool did not: mythology. Other than appearances by Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, two characters identified as active members of the X-Men, the movie didn't really allude to Deadpool's extensive comic book mythology, nor did it make any obvious tie-ins to the current X-Men movie franchise. This lack of mythology was especially obvious when it came to the villain, Ajax.
In the comic books, Ajax works for a very important organization: Weapon X, the same organization that experimented on Wolverine. In the film, it's clear Ajax doesn't run the operation. He might be in charge of the experiments, but his admission that he, himself, underwent the same treatment to trigger his own mutant powers suggests that he was taught by someone else. In the original comic book cannon, that someone else is the ominously named Doctor Killebrew, though he is neither seen, nor referenced in Deadpool.
Given Deadpool's success at the box office, it's likely that Weapon X, as well as Doctor Killebrew, will appear in the planned sequel. Deadpool was the movie the studio didn't really want to make, and if the film's lack of mythology is anything to go by, it seems the studio also wanted to make sure that, if the movie bombed, it wouldn't affect the X-Men movie story lines going forward, specifically where Wolverine is involved. Now that Deadpool has proven itself successful, I wouldn't be surprised if the Deadpool sequel was more heavily intertwined with the other X-Men movies.
How might Deadpool 2 incorporate Weapon X, you ask? That's easy. At the end of the film (spoiler alert) Deadpool defeated Ajax and reunited with his one true love, Vanessa, but he also revealed to the world that he is alive. Ajax, and whoever he worked for, believed Wade Wilson to be dead after the experiments. Even though Ajax is dead, it's likely that his organization knows Deadpool is alive, and I doubt they'll let him live happily ever after.
Images: 20th Century Fox; Giphy (2)
