In the quick snippets of actual footage from Deadpool 2 in the new trailer, which is mostly just Ryan Reynolds hilariously riffing on painter Bob Ross, one thing we oddly didn’t really see was Josh Brolin as the cybernetic mutant Cable.  However, the eagle eyed viewers over at Comic Book Resources did seem to glean a significant clue as to what Cable’s role will be in the final film.

In the very brief shot of Julian Dennison’s as-yet-unnamed character, we see him in what looks to be a church surrounded by flames. The real clue though is in the background, up on the banners hung on the walls of this church. The banners say typical cult-like stuff like “The End is Near” and to “Prepare Yourself,” while another one say  that those in the room are “Pure Blood,” with the final banner reading “Purity, Humanity, Infinity.” And on one of those banners is clearly an image of a man with a cybernetic arm and an X logo on his shirt, none of than Cable.

So is Cable a cult leader in this movie? Or is he a sort of messiah figure for a cult that already exists? Now, here’s where things get interesting. In the comics, it could be said that Cable was actually raised, till a certain point in his childhood, by what could be thought of as a cult — the Clan Askani.

This is where we must get into the convoluted history of Cable. Born to X-Man leader Cyclops and his wife Maddy (a clone of Jean Grey), Nathan Christopher Summers was born with telekenitic abilities like his mother.The ancient mutant Apocalypse infected the child with a techno-organic virus (hence the metal in his body), and to save his life, Cyclops let a mysterious clan from the far future take his son away to cure him, knowing they would never see him again.

So clan Askani, also called the Askani sisterhood, cured young Nathan and he grew up to be Cable. Eventually, he would travel back to our present in order to defeat Apocalypse. Now, another member of the Askani Sisterhood (a woman named Sanctity) also experimented with time-travel and founded a cult based on the Askani principles in the 21st century. And Cable himself has been spreading the Askani philosophy in the present, seeing Askani as a way to build a strong foundation on the future. Could this be the “cult” we briefly glimpse in the trailer? Are we getting that deep cut of a reference in Deadpool 2 already? Who knows, but it is certainly possible based on the source material.

Do you think the cult we see in the Deadpool 2 trailer is a comic book reference, or is it something totally different? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

More on Deadpool!

• Deadpool 2‘s new teaser is VERY Bob Ross!
• Could Deadpool‘s new comic book change the status of the films?
• Will Deadpool 2 introduce Cable’s evil clone Stryfe?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Images: Twentieth Century Fox / Marvel Comics