Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Deadpool 2, dropping bombs like it’s the Merc with a Mouth himself fooling around with a grenade launcher. First we got an early look at Zazie Beetz’s flirtatious and badass Domino. Now, a little over a week later, DP leading man Ryan Reynolds has given us our first look at Josh Brolin as the militant mutant messiah Cable–and it is next level radiculous.
Yeah, I had to make up an adjective because there is no word in the English language that properly describes just how rad and ridiculous this one image is. Remember the post-credits scene of Deadpool, when Wade Wilson told the audience point blank that Cable was gonna be in the sequel? This is that guy. If you don’t know who Cable is, then this headshot probably looks like a well executed collage of photos from the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Universal Soldier. If you know who Cable is, then looking at this twitpic most likely made you scream, full-voiced, at your screen. Not even words, just guttural noises of astonishment.
This is Cable. This is who he is. A lot of superhero movies have to make a lot of changes when pulling characters off a page. Wolverine never wore spandex, Hawkeye still hasn’t worn his purple mask, and Harley Quinn and Joker got gift cards to Hot Topic. Changes happen. Not here, though. Deadpool 2 is giving us (to quote Reynolds) #PremiumCABLE.
This image has it all: Cable’s signature three-pronged eye scar, Cable’s glowing cyborg eye, Cable’s metallic cyborg arm (and cyborg neck!), Cable’s grizzled hair, and even Cable’s bandolier of over-sized explodey canisters. Cable’s a character that has always served a lot of look in the comics, and Josh Brolin is owning it right here. The only thing that’s noticeably different is movie Cable’s uber-trendy Brooklyn-esque hairdo. And honestly, that’s a change that I am here for. The full body shot just reveals even more about Cable, and it’s all working. That’s a massive gun with at least three barrels!
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The fact that Deadpool 2 is leaning this hard into Cable’s over-the-top look bodes well for the film. After all, if any superhero movie is gonna embrace the bodaciously bizarre superhero comics of the early ’90s, it should be Deadpool. Whether or not Deadpool 2 will go that hard at Cable’s comic book origin, though, remains to be seen.
Because Cable’s got the origin to end all origins.
Born Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, Cable is the son of Cyclops (you know, the visor-wearing leader of the X-Men, currently played by 20-something Tye Sheridan) and a clone of Jean Grey (currently played by Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner) named Madelyne Pryor. In order to save baby Nathan’s life from an advanced disease that was turning his organic matter into technology, the toddler was sent thousands of years into the future. The disease was stopped, but not before taking over half of his body (hence cyborg arm and eye), and Nathan grew up to be a tough-as-nails freedom fighter and leader of the war against the immortal mutant Apocalypse (the blue/purple bad guy played by Oscar Isaac). Well into adulthood, Cable traveled back to the present on a mission to kill Apocalypse before he could rise to power.
So yeah, his origin involves both time travel and a clone and a sci-fi virus that turned him into a walking Terminator 2 poster. Whether or not Deadpool 2 will get into all that remains to be seen. After all, that’s a lot of origin! But again, if there’s a movie that can weave in an absurd amount of hella confusing backstory, it’s the fourth-wall-breaking Deadpool. And the fact that Cable has a teddy bear strapped to his belt makes me wonder if Brolin’s super-soldier is gonna have some issues with residual childhood trauma. That right there could be a sign that Deadpool 2 isn’t just giving us a comic-accurate Cable costume, it might be giving us a comic-accurate Cable origin.
June 1, 2018 can’t get here fast enough.
