If you’d have told me in the ’90s, when I was watching the X-Men animated series and reading X-Men, X-Force, and Wolverine comics regularly, that the role of Cable would be one of the most hotly contested and sought-after roles in Hollywood, I a.) would have been confused because I was like 9, and b.) I’d never have believed it. But Deadpool 2‘s casting search for the gritty freedom fighter to go along with Ryan Reynolds‘ Merc with a Mouth and Zazie Beetz‘s Domino has finally come to a close, and The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the winner to be Josh Brolin.
Brolin beat out people like Michael Shannon and Stranger Things‘ David Harbour for the coveted part of Nathan Summers, whose first Cable appearance was in New Mutants #87, created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld. With the trifecta in place, director David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 can hit the ground running and is said to begin production, which is scheduled for June in Vancouver.
But wait, you say, Josh Brolin…isn’t he playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? How can he be Cable for Fox’s Marvel properties at the same time? And it’s for a four-picture deal with Fox, to boot. Well, I’m curious about that too. Nerdist has reached out to Fox for additional information, but as of publication, we haven’t received a reply.
Still, it’s unprecedented for an actor to appear in two enormous superhero franchises at the same time, much less to be for the same comic book parent company but different studio rights holders. The closest we have is Chris Evans going from playing the Human Torch in Fox’s first two Fantastic Four movies to playing the MCU’s Captain America, but that FF franchise was all but dead in the water. Both Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War are expected in 2018. Perhaps this means Thanos won’t be long for the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the Infinity flicks.
We’ll keep you updated on any further development. Let us know your thoughts on Joshy B being the big screen Cable in the comments below!
Images: Marvel/Twentieth Century Fox/The Weinstein Company
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
