Update: Deadpool 2 is Cable & Deadpool

Six years ago, shortly before the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the news that its studio was considering a spinoff for Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool, we discussed the possibility of that side project being a Cable and Deadpool team-up film based on Reynolds' own interest in the time-travelling soldier and the relationship between the characters in Marvel Comics (they've had multiple series together).

It never came to be but Cable and Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld revealed not too long ago that in meetings with producers at Twentieth Century Fox after X-Men Origins: Wolverine debuted, they brainstormed future X-Men movie ideas and he advised them that the pair don't need to be introduced together, that Deadpool should stand on his own first.

Well, here we are six years later and the Deadpool solo movie just played in two theaters last night in New York and Los Angeles as a surprise for fans and the response was overwhelmingly positive. It's a fitting surprise for fans who attended the events on the promise of just some new footage and a fitting response given the tumultuous development process behind Deadpool which involved years of Reynolds, director Tim Miller, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick - despite having a hot script - waiting for the studio greenlight. And that approval only came after test footage made by these people proving Deadpool could be done right leaked online.

Deadpool - Thanksgiving promo image

We don't even have to talk about the fact that the studio fast-tracked this film, let its makers push the limits of the genre with an R rating, and has been hitting viral home runs with its Deadpool-appropriate marketing strategy. Even if Deadpool ends up not winning the critics consensus over, Fox, Miller, Reynolds, and everyone involved have succeeded in bringing one of the most unique comic book characters ever to the big screen in a way that fans not only respect, but want to see.

And that's all they need to for us to talk about what we're going to talk about next: Cable.

Fans are loving everything they're seeing from Wade Wilson on screen from the TV spots and trailers alone so if Deadpool 2 isn't already a given, Deadpool appearing in other X-Men movies absolutely is. He's too much of a bankable character with a bankable lead behind him, and that's what Fox needs with Hugh Jackman hanging up the claws after Wolverine 3 (it's also why the Channing Tatum Gambit movie is in development).

Next Page: Ryan Reynolds Teases Cable & Deadpool!

Deadpool and Cable vs Sentinels Art

And running with the theory that there will be more Deadpool no matter what, let's play with the idea that Cable is coming too. Liefeld said as much in November 2014:

“Cable is awesome. And he will… when he appears on screen, we’re all going to nerdgasm, because he’s coming. They can’t hold him back. He’s coming.”

And skip forward to August 2015, shortly after the first Deadpool teaser footage played at San Diego Comic-Con, and director Tim Miller added the following when talking about choosing supporting characters and villains for the movie:

"There aren’t really many definitive Deadpool villains, apart from Cable. If we don’t put Cable in Deadpool 2 I think we’ll be run out of town on a rail.”

Producer Simon Kinberg, in other interviews, also talked about getting Cable into the X-Universe, explaining that he almost made it into X-Men: Days of Future Past. And when on the set of Deadpool I asked the writers (Reese and Wernick) about characters they wanted to use who they'd use in sequel, and they immediately said "Cable" without hesitation.

Deadpool (2016) Poster

Knowing all of this, it surprised no one when at the New York Deadpool fan event yesterday during the Q&A after the screening fans asked Ryan Reynolds - who made a surprise appearance (other cast and crew appeared at the LA event) - what characters they wanted but couldn't include. He explained that there was a lot of interest in Taskmaster who's owned by Marvel and talked about hopefully "making more of these" which had the audience loudly applauding when someone shouted "Cable and Deadpool" Reynolds quickly responded:

"Your lips to God's ears, my friend. Believe me, that's being talked about."

CB explains that as Reynolds said this, he smiled, nodded, and made a raised eyebrow expression to hit the point home. And this shouldn't surprise anyone. Time-travel exists in the X-Men universe and so to does a proper adaptation of Deadpool who can break the fourth wall.

It'd be crazy as this point to not have Cable show up in Deadpool 2New Mutants and/or X-Force if they bring that latter project back to life. The X-Force script Fox commissioned by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) was seemingly put on indefinite hold in favor of X-Men: Apocalypse which used the Apocalypse character instead, but with New Mutants in development, the logical followup to that would be X-Force. Even last year, Reynolds said he'd love to followup Deadpool by appearing in a supporting role in an X-Force team movie lead by Cable.

Could Deadpool even tease such a thing? A fun post-credits button did play yesterday at the LA event and the writers teased a huge one they were hoping to make a few months ago, so if that came to be, when Deadpool does hit theaters next month, maybe they can finally tease something Cable-related, or at the very least, what comes next in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Update: Deadpool 2 is Cable & Deadpool

Next: X-Men: Apocalypse Trailer Explained By Director Bryan Singer

Tim Miller directs the film from a screenplay by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. It is produced by Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Ryan Reynolds, starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Leslie Uggams.

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Deadpool opens in theaters February 12, 2016; X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27, 2016; Gambit sometime in 2017; Wolverine 3 on March 3, 2017; and some as-yet unspecified X-Men film on July 13, 2018. The New Mutants is also in development.

Source: CB