Before you see Deadpool in the movie, meet his cat doppelganger
Ryan Reynolds wishes he looked as good in the red suit as this superhero kitty does.
Most cats wouldn't be cool with donning a full face mask, and any humans who tried to put them in one would likely find themselves in a deep valley of regret, covered in scratches.
Deadpool cat, as he's known in the magical world of cosplay, is apparently not most cats.
For the past five years, Seattle-area plumbing technician, commercial driver and part-time stunt man Freyu (as he prefers to be called) has been developing intricate and spellbinding film, comic, video game and anime costumes for cats.
His latest triumph of craftsmanship is a dead-on Deadpool cosplay modeled by his rescue feline, Fawkes. Freyu has created dozens of homemade costumes, worth hundreds of dollars, which he custom builds on a regular basis, some taking up to 35 hours to complete.
Deadpool kitty was busy doing impressive flips with katanas (samurai swords), so we got ahold of Freyu, just after a viewing of the new "Deadpool" film starring Ryan Reynolds, and took a deeper dive into the whimsical genius of his cat cosplay.
Q: Which came first, the cats or the costumes?
Freyu: Nak (our Calico) is a shoulder cat who will ride around in public up there. Cat cosplay started with her really about five years ago when we went to a Renaissance Faire, and we thought it would be fun to throw her in a tiny dog Jack Sparrow costume. I was unhappy with how the costume looked, and by the second weekend of going to the fair I had already created a dragon outfit for her with metal scales and posable wings.
How much time does each costume take to make, on average?
Freyu: I break up my costumes into light, medium and heavy, which take 2 to 7, 8 to 25, and 25-plus hours, respectively. Ganondorf took 35-plus hours but a lot of that was learning new materials.
What's your favorite costume, and why is it anything involving a tiny cat wig?
Freyu: Wigs have been one of the hardest learning curves I've had to conquer. My favorite costume is always the one that I'm currently working on because it's the one that is driving my inspiration. So my favorite costume you haven't seen yet, but if you follow geeky social media, you can make an educated guess on what might be coming next.
Have you ever been contacted by the person who voices, plays or creates the character your cats cosplay?
Freyu: Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon from "Rick and Morty" shared our stuff. Alex Hirsch of "Gravity Falls" gave us a fantastic shout-out. James Gunn shared our Star-Lord for Caturday and said great job. Some of the people at Lucasfilm shared our Star Wars stuff around on personal accounts. Bethesda and Blizzard sharing our video game stuff actually got Loot Crate involved in our work, which was huge.
Who would you be most honored to get a thumbs-up from?
Freyu: Early on when we had just started, Grant Imahara found our "Attack on Titan" cosplay with full maneuver gear and shared it out and complimented our work. Coming from somebody who is so talented in creating things has really spurred me on into learning new materials and new crafting techniques to make better costumes. And you can see it from our early costumes like Star-Lord (I so need to remake that mask) to what we are doing now.