The Tortured Poets Department’s “Clara Bow” has sparked new MCU theories.
By Jenna Anderson
Expectations are definitely high for Deadpool & Wolverine, the R-rated superhero blockbuster arriving from Marvel Studios later this summer. The film is not only poised to bring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s performances as the titular characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but plenty of rumors have hinted at other surprise cameos from across the Marvel multiverse. One of the most pervasive theories at the center of Deadpool & Wolverine has been that it will feature an appearance from pop superstar Taylor Swift, potentially as fan-favorite X-Men member and canonical pop superstar Alison Blaire / Dazzler.
At the time of this writing, Swift’s involvement in Deadpool & Wolverine is far from confirmed, with Reynolds and director Shawn Levy (both of whom are friends with Swift and have appeared in her music videos) only vaguely hinting at the possibility. Still, that certainly hasn’t stopped fans from speculating that Swift will cameo in the film, and some think the latest piece of evidence can be found in Swift’s newly released album, The Tortured Poets Department. “Clara Bow”, the sixteenth and final song in the standard edition of The Tortured Poets Department, repeatedly includes a lyric about being “dazzling.” While “Clara Bow” did not end up being the closer for The Tortured Poets Department, as Swift later surprise announced the project is actually a double album, releasing fifteen more songs as The Tortured Poets: The Anthology soon after, the “dazzling” line has still given some Marvel fans pause. Is Swift dropping an advanced hint that she will play Dazzler in Deadpool & Wolverine, or is it all just a coincidence?
Granted, as Levy indicated in interviews earlier this month, we probably won’t know if Swift is in Deadpool & Wolverine until the film actually gets released in theaters this July. This also isn’t the first time that Swift’s potential involvement in a film has morphed into a sort of guerrilla marketing tactic, as evident by the previous deluge of theories suggesting she was the secret writer of Argylle. But the conversation around “dazzling” is definitely interesting, especially in the context of “Clara Bow.”
For starters, there is a chance that Swift’s use of “dazzling” is pure happenstance. It does fit well within the context of “Clara Bow”, which tracks the good and bad of the generation-spanning cycle of being the entertainment industry’s “It Girl.” The song begins with the titular Clara Bow (a silent film star who career led to the creation of the term “It Girl”), before jumping to Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks, and then to Swift herself, and then to the generation of pop stars that have followed her. “Clara Bow” introduces each woman by directly comparing them to their predecessor, through the mindset of industry suits trying to mold the next big thing. This is where the “dazzling” lyric comes in, as each woman is either literally or subconsciously expected to “promise to be dazzling” in the public eye. The song seems to argue that this cycle can be fickle, can be exhausting for the “It Girl” in question, and can also flatten and oversimplify the careers of the real-life women mentioned in the song.
Regardless of whether or not Swift is in Deadpool & Wolverine, as Dazzler or otherwise, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that she’s at least tangentially aware that the Internet has connected her to the character. After all, the first rumors of her playing Dazzler originated nearly a decade ago around the production of 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, after she was photographed alongside members of the film’s ensemble cast. When those rumors first began, Swift was in the middle of her initial 1989 era, which was characterized by record-breaking pop hits, a global stadium tour, and a white-and-blue color scheme that coincidentally evokes Dazzler’s comic-accurate costume. Even if a Marvel fan was only casually aware of Swift at the time, it was easy to flatten her star power into the qualities they might want to see in an onscreen Dazzler.
Ultimately, those Apocalypse rumors were debunked, and Dazzler later unceremoniously appeared (portrayed by another actress) in 2020’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but Swift still remained an easy fancast among those online. Cut to the 2023 production on Deadpool & Wolverine, and Swift’s established ties to the film’s cast and crew, and the suggestions that she should play Dazzler only ballooned from there. It’s also worth mentioning the fact that Swift was in the middle of her Midnights era at the time, which was also characterized by record-breaking pop hits, an even bigger global stadium tour, and another white-and-blue color scheme.
1989 and Midnights are fundamentally different albums about drastically different points in Swift’s life, and the years between the two were marked by multiple major life events and multiple reinventions of her musical persona, expanding into other genres through albums like reputation and folklore. And yet, a part of popular culture has still reduced Swift to the aesthetic similarities she shares with Dazzler — something that could be fun for her to play into in a theoretical Deadpool & Wolverine cameo, but could also be an unwanted set of expectations. It doesn’t help that the more recent round of speculation that Swift is playing Dazzler has already preemptively been met with backlash, as some naysayers have already bemoaned that a simple cameo from her would “ruin” the MCU. (This mindset, unfortunately, isn’t anything new, as similar cries were made once Swift started attending NFL games to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and once the theatrical release of her Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie outperformed some established franchise movies.) Whether or not Swift meant for it to, including the word “dazzling” in “Clara Bow” has further fueled a version of the exact conversation she sings about in the song, as cameoing as Dazzler will open her up to even more comparisons, positivity, and negativity. In a song about being about the pressure of being molded into the famous women who preceded you, even a fictional famous woman has become part of the conversation.
Deadpool & Wolverine is scheduled to be released in theaters on Friday, July 26th.
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