Deadpool & Wolverine revolved around cameos; beyond bringing back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, there were more returning X-Men than you could shake a mutated stick at. Most notably, Jennifer Garner reprised her role as Elektra and Channing Tatum made his debut as Gambit, but beyond the headlines, several minor X-Men characters reappeared in the background. One, however, looked a lot different than they used to, and many fans didn’t even notice.
Deadpool & Wolverine costume illustrator Jonay Bacallado posted a closer look at Psylocke, one of Cassandra Nova’s lackeys, to their Instagram account, but this version looks nothing like the character’s previous depictions in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse.
In Apocalypse, Psylocke was played by Olivia Munn and took on a larger role in the story. In Deadpool & Wolverine, the role was taken by prolific stuntwoman Ayesha Hussain, in her feature acting debut. But Ayesha’s role was uncredited, meaning Psylocke wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the character list. So even though Deadpool & Wolverine has been out for over a month, this is a surprising revelation.
Unlike the recasting between X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse, this change actually has a canonical explanation. Because Cassandra Nova rules over the Void, all of her henchmen are from the far reaches of the multiverse, so this is just a different variant of the Psylocke we’ve seen before. While she’s generally acted heroically in the comic books, Marvel movies keep finding ways to transform her into a villain, and she once again served the antagonist here.
Maybe it says something about Deadpool & Wolverine that it contained so many cameos that the ones in the background could slip by even the scrutiny of obsessive Marvel fans, but this recasting means Psylocke has appeared three times on screen in three different forms. Would Hussain get to keep playing her if she were to appear again despite her lack of experience, or would the mutant get another makeover? Would Munn be willing to return for a larger role? Anything is possible in the multiverse, so maybe we’ll even get to see Psylocke do some good for once.
