Deadpool & Wolverine Recast Her & X-Men Fans Missed It
A whole lot of "X-Men" show up in "Deadpool & Wolverine," which is why it's easy to miss that some of them are played by different people. One of Wolverine's more formidable foes, Lady Deathstrike, is among them — but who's the person wearing the adamantium fingernails now?
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00:00A whole lot of X-Men show up in Deadpool and Wolverine, which is why it's easy to miss
00:04that some of them are played by different people.
00:07One of Wolverine's more formidable foes, Lady Deathstrike, is among them.
00:10But who's the person wearing the adamantium fingernails now?
00:13The first time you watch Wolverine face off against Yuriko Oyama, aka Lady Deathstrike,
00:18in 2003's X2 X-Men United, you might find yourself having a similar reaction to Logan.
00:28More than 20 years later, the fight between these two super-healing adamantium skeleton
00:32individuals still ranks up there as one of the most savage mutant-on-mutant scuffles
00:35in any of 20th Century Fox's numerous X-Men movies.
00:39Despite being restricted by the film's PG-13 rating, this sequence manages to pack in plenty
00:43of painful moments, culminating with Lady Deathstrike's horrifying fate of death by
00:47liquefied adamantium injection.
00:50The fact that she had spent the whole movie being forced to serve the detestable William
00:53Stryker via mind control serum only adds to the greater tragedy of her character.
00:58In light of her graphic demise, it might have felt strange if Lady Deathstrike actor Kelly
01:02Hu had reprised her X2 role for Deadpool in Wolverine, weird as it is to see Wesley Snipes
01:06blade in a Marvel action comedy that's well removed from the look and tone of the Daywalker's
01:11previous outings.
01:12It could have been odder still if Hu had been one of the many Marvel Fox alumni to cameo
01:16in the film.
01:17It's one thing when Tyler Maine returns as Sabretooth from 2000's X-Men and gets swiftly
01:21decapitated by Wolverine.
01:23His character is just kind of a jerk, after all.
01:25Bringing back Hu to play a mutant who was cruelly denied her own free will and then
01:29butchered by Logan just to be defeated once again wouldn't have had the wistful fanservice
01:33effect that Deadpool in Wolverine seems to be aiming for.
01:36Perhaps it's better, then, that a different actor play Lady Deathstrike in the film, giving
01:40an up-and-coming stunt performer a brief moment to shine in a superhero mega-blockbuster.
01:45While Hu's X2 co-star Aaron Stanford once again lights up the screen as Pyro in Deadpool
01:49in Wolverine, Lady Deathstrike is, instead, brought to life by Jade Lai.
01:53Lai has been working as a stunt performer in major Hollywood productions since 2019.
01:58In addition to doubling as Supergirl in 2023's The Flash, she's done stunt work in movies
02:02like Tim Burton's live-action Dumbo and Meg Too!
02:05The Trench, on top of TV shows like Game of Thrones and Lioness.
02:09Taking to Instagram to celebrate Deadpool in Wolverine crossing the $1 billion mark
02:12at the box office, Lai posted several behind-the-scenes photos showing off her practical metal fingernails
02:18in the film.
02:19She gave a special thanks to the movie's second unit director and supervising stunt
02:22coordinator George Coddle, along with her hair and makeup team.
02:26She added,
02:27"'Mornings I Will Never Forget' and are very special and loved every moment.
02:30Will cherish all the amazing times on set with such a talented team."
02:33She continued in a separate post thanking Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and director
02:37Sean Levy, writing,
02:38"'I Will Never Forget' making box office records, with memories to last a lifetime,
02:42fights with true legends, and making childhood dreams come true."
02:46Kelly Hu is far from the only X-Men veteran who wasn't brought back for Deadpool in Wolverine,
02:50but at the end of the day, her recasting makes sense.
02:53It's likely that Lai's variant of Lady Deathstrike comes from a different universe, one where
02:57the character never got injected with liquid metal by Logan.
03:00That would make watching her fight Deadpool and his friends a much less painful experience.