Hitting the superhero scene like the shockwave of one of her atomic blasts, the lesser-known mutant Negasonic Teenage Warhead became the unexpected scene-stealer of the willfully wild Deadpool. Texas-born ingénue Brianna Hildebrand famously strode into the audition with the bold buzz-cut that became Negasonic’s signature and won the devotion of Deadpool fans from her first snarkily arched eyebrow. So it’s no surprise that Hildebrand is poised to reprise her smirking superheroine in Deadpool 2. And Screen Rant stole a moment with her at SXSW–where she’s promoting the new teen slasher-comedy Tragedy Girls–to ask what we might expect from the next wave of Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

“I’ve not yet actually read the script,” Hildebrand confessed, adding “But I do think she will be a lot cooler, based on the wardrobe ideas and stuff. I’m very excited.” She explained she’d just seen some concept art, “Just some ideas, nothing that’s concrete or anything. But I think it’s cool that she’s grown and matured and she still has so much of this essence of a punk kid.”

Beyond these tantalizing details, Hildebrand demurred from sharing more, always careful to keep the surprises intact for Deadpool’s fervent fandom.  Asked what’s it’s been like to be so embraced by this fun-loving fandemonium that has made her incarnation of Negasonic Teenage Warhead into an instant icon, the 20-year-old paused to ponder, then offered, “That was exciting, just because I felt so close to Negasonic in that she reminded me so much of myself. Like young, teenage/tweenage, angsty like pissed off Brianna is who she reminded me of. It was just like, ‘Oh! She’s so cute. I get her, you know?’ So yeah. That was super exciting to see that people liked her too because it felt like people liked me, or the part of me in there somewhere.”

Sadly, we have a while to wait before Negasonic Teenage Warhead returns to the big screen with her punk flare and kapow powers. Deadpool 2 won’t be hitting theaters until March 2nd, 2018. But fans of Hildebrand have reason to celebrate, as Tragedy Girls should be coming in 2017. The horror-comedy - that focuses on a pair of aspiring teen serial killers and co-stars X-Men: Apocalypse’s Alexandra Shipp - makes its world premiere at SXSW tomorrow night. Fingers crossed: a theatrical release will be revealed shortly thereafter.

Look for more from our interview with Hildebrand and Shipp later this week.

  • Wolverine 3 Release Date: 2017-03-03 Deadpool 2 Release Date: 2018-05-18