Ryan Reynolds says he loved Emma Corrin‘s unpredictability in playing the villainous Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“It felt like working with a skin-covered Swiss Army knife,” Reynolds said during a profile on Corrin in Harpers Bazaar. “Emma brought a Gene Wilder energy to Deadpool & Wolverine. Mischief, danger, unpredictability — from their first scene onward, we understand the villain enough to know why she’s motivated to oppose our heroes. And that’s because Emma is so fucking excellent at humanizing even the most chaotic lines. The only thing we love more than hating a villain is loving one. And we love Emma’s Cassandra Nova from the jump.”
Reynolds was not the only Marvel Cinematic Universe star singing Corrin’s praises. His co-star Hugh Jackman expressed appreciation for Corrin’s multidimensional performance. “Emma has an ability to so subtly change — to turn on a dime,” Jackman said. “There was an effortlessness, a sense of danger.”
Who is Cassandra Nova?
Introduced as the evil twin of Professor Charles Xavier, Cassandra Nova made her Marvel Comics debut in the pages of 2001’s New X-Men #114. Created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, Nova was initially killed in the womb by Xavier when he recognized the evil presence inside her. Decades later, however, Nova was reborn with a physical body and her psyche entangled with her brother. With psychic powers identical to Xavier’s Nova controlled an army of Sentinels to massacre millions of mutants on the island of Genosha.
Despite her lack of knowledge about Marvel, Corrin previously shared her excitement about joining the MCU when she spoke to Empire in 2023. “Hands up, I’m not a Marvel person,” Corrin said. “I’ve watched Spider-Man and Black Panther. I was like, ‘Look, you’re gonna have to debrief me into this.’ It’s such an intricate world. There’s so much to it. It’s an absolute mind-f—-. All the language and the Easter eggs, and this person is related to that person who did this, and this person came back and this person’s dead . . . it’s amazing.”
Directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine is scheduled for release on July 26th.
