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***UPDATE: X-Men Origins: Wolverine has opened, we know you now know the answer. Please, don't feel obligated to state who is or is not Deadpool. We know.

Out of the comments I made here, I've decided to talk a bit more about this. It seems that there are confusions on various message boards and blogs out there as to the identity of Weapon XI, the rumored villain in the Wolverine movie. Weapon XI is listed as being played by Scott Adkins, and from the shots in the trailer, the mysterious bald guy does look like it might be Adkins. But there are clues that point to that guy (henceforth we shall call him Not!Baraka) being Deadpool, even though we know that Ryan Reynolds is playing Deadpool.

But what if... Weapon XI is Deadpool? Dun dun dun.

If that doesn't make any sense, let's start at the beginning:

Who the hell is Deadpool? Deadpool is one of the funniest characters from Marvel comics. He's a wisecracking smartass assassin who likes to mouth off, hence his nickname The Merc with a Mouth. He is a mutant who has healing powers and can teleport. He is also insane and is aware that he is a comic book character. Just one of the many reasons why he's one of my favorite characters.

Even before this Wolverine movie went into production, Reynolds, a big fan of the character, had expressed interest in starring in a Deadpool movie. We wrote a post pleading for his casting a couple of years back and even provided a solution for it. I'd like to think that someone at FOX read our idea and made it so, but we're not that bold. Great minds just think alike.

Ryan Reynolds is playing Wade Wilson/Deadpool. There is no doubt about this. He's wanted to play Deadpool for a long time, he's been praised by the producers as doing a great job doing Deadpool's signature wisecracks. He did such a good job, the production did reshoots late January to add more Deadpool into the movie; making him an even more significant character in the plot, and hopefully coerce movie audiences into wanting his own spin-off film.

Weapon XI is the villain of the film. Played by Scott Adkins, the character is said to be an "ultimate mutant" who is augmented with various mutant powers by the young William Stryker (Danny Huston). When Not!Baraka first appeared in the teaser trailer in one brief shot, fans pegged him as possibly Weapon XI. In the new theatrical trailer released this week, we see a closer look of Not!Baraka displaying other mutant abilities like Cyclops' Optical Blast.

It would seem, then, that he is Weapon XI, a pool of other mutant powers. Aside from the optic blast, perhaps he would have the powers of other mutants in the film, like Kestrel's teleportation, Sabretooth's agility and Wolverine's healing powers. Wait, that sounds familiar. What X-Men character from the comics has those powers.... Oh right, Deadpool.

But that's just going by assumptions. Let's look at something a little more concrete.

Toys identify Not!Baraka as both Deadpool and Weapon XI. In February, merchandising for the movie began to hit stores like Walmart, etc. At first, fans noticed Not!Baraka being called Deadpool in the toy previews for a kiddie SuperHero Squad toyline set called "Battle at Three Mile Island," referring of course to the real-life nuclear disaster in 1979. The trailer shows Not!Baraka and Wolverine battling on top of a nuclear plant, and then the meltdown of said plant. The back of this "Battle at Three Mile Island" toy set contains the description:

BATTLE AT THREE MILE ISLAND

The Weapon 11 program has created the ultimate mutant-DEADPOOL! As the mutant menace rampages across Three Mile Island, Logan and Victor Creed are forced to team up--or be destoyed.

When the item hits stores a couple of weeks later, however, they've changed the name to "Wolverine on the Run," presumably to keep the movie's Three Mile Island finale a secret (although now they've put it in the trailer, duh) and the description box was covered by a sticker containing the new description:

WOLVERINE ON THE RUN

With the ultimate mutant, Deadpool, on the loose, Logan and Victor Creed are forced to team up--or be destroyed.

He's still called Deadpool in all of the boxes, and the back of the other SuperHero Squad sets advertising the "Wolverine on the Run" set. Furthermore, they also released the Series 1 of the official X-Men Origins: Wolverine line, which includes the Deadpool figure.

You can get a look at the back of the packaging here, containing the following description:

Deadpool was created by William Stryker to be the ultimate mutant. He is a monster with a single mission, to serve Stryker's will. He is an indestructible weapon with no weaknesses, and his first target is Wolverine.

All this, of course, could be a major major bungling by Hasbro. Or perhaps a red herring? Pretty unlikely, but still—entirely possible...

Other clues to Not!Baraka being Deadpool can also be seen in the markings on his face. The features on Not!Baraka's face certainly resemble the pattern on Deadpool's mask.

As for his stitched-up mouth... Hm, is there a significance there? Robert from FilmSchoolRejects made the good guess that it's some kind of punishment for The Merc with a Mouth, because he talks too much.

It's interesting to note that Not!Baraka's claws are longer than his forearms, so they obviously don't pop out like Wolverine's. That mean's they're augmented. Could it be that Deadpool jams his signature twin swords into his hands to make fun of Wolverine? That would certainly fit into Deadpool's smartass character. Note also that on the toys, Not!Baraka has bandages, as if the blades are taped on. Possibly toning down the gruesome for the kiddie, like the omitting of Joker's mouth scars on select The Dark Knight merchandises? Furthermore, in the trailer, both Not!Baraka and Ryan Reynolds do a similar spinning cut with their respective swords, though that might be reaching.

Deadpool is heavily disfigured in the comics, as a result of his Weapon X experiments. Obviously, in the trailer, we see Ryan Reynolds with his pretty mug intact. The expectation here is to have this film be Deadpool's origin story, where he gets scarred near the end of the film. Not!Baraka certainly looks like a step towards that. However, remember also that he's going to battle Wolverine in the middle of a nuclear meltdown.

Would it be safe to assume then that Wolverine beats him, Three Mile Island goes down, Not!Baraka/Weapon XI gets hit by the explosion or whatever, leaving him scarred.

Scott Adkins is Weapon XI, Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, but they're the same character? It sounds weird as hell, but that might just be the case here. Speculation? Reynolds plays the normal ninja assassin pretty boy Wade Wilson, with all his wisecracking glory. He somehow annoys Stryker, so Stryker uses him as a test subject for the Weapon XI program by giving him the powers of other mutants and turning him into Not!Baraka. At this point, he is played by Scott Adkins, who shares a similar physique with Reynolds and is a much more accomplished martial artist/stuntman. Since his mouth is sewn shut, they didn't need Reynolds for the role. This ultimate mutant, born out of Weapon XI, is called Deadpool.

So what about the proposed Deadpool movie? Well, it's to be assumed that he survives the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, albeit heavily disfigured. Maybe he develops cancer from the radiation, too, like what he has in the comics.

In order to go ahead with the movie, they needed to build Deadpool up. That's what the January reshoots were for, to give the audience more Deadpool. But it could also to alter the movie a little to make him something more than just a side character. Wolverine and Magneto got their own movies, but you don't see Nightcrawler starring in his own film, do you? Maybe by making Deadpool the main villain in Wolverine, they'd have more of a base in giving him his own movie.

These are all just guesses, of course. We won't know for sure until we see the movie, or a second trailer in which they refer to Not!Baraka as Deadpool, which is perhaps unlikely. But what do you think? Is Weapon XI = Deadpool? Are these hard evidences, or are they just baseless speculations? Did Hasbro screw up their info? Vote for it in the comments below!