You might remember when Avatar actor Stephen Lang put himself in the running to play X-Men‘s Cable years before Deadpool hit theatres, after the release and the reveal Cable would be in Deadpool 2 he took to social media to campaign for the role.
However, in a new interview with Cinema Blend for Lang’s new horror film Don’t Breathe he revealed that his commitments to James Cameron’s multiple Avatar sequels have likely put him out of any consideration for the role.
“I think it’s highly unlikely that they would ever give me the part, for a number of reasons, one of which being that it’s the same studio as Avatar. It’s a conceivable it would be a scheduling conflict, but you know, what I’ve said is that if they did give me the part, they’d be very satisfied – because I’ll play the hell out of the part. But if they don’t give me the part, then I can be magnanimous in defeat, compliment the actor who does get the part, and console myself with four sequels to Avatar.”
We learned recently from producer Simon Kinberg that director Tim Miller will begin production on Deadpool 2 in early 2017, which obviously conflicts with James Cameron’s lengthy production shoot for his four Avatar sequels. A majority of them are said to be shooting back-t0-back to save money.
Another lesson we’ve learned is that most of the time actors who put themselves out there for roles or campaign for them don’t often get calls for auditions. I generally think we’ll be getting a bigger name for the Cable role, since I hear Fox looks at the character as a key X-Men franchise player and not just a supporting comedic foil for Deadpool.
A fan-favorite like Mad Max‘s Tom Hardy wouldn’t be terribly out of the question, if only they were able to land him. Tom had already been in the mix for the Apocalypse role in X-Men: Apocalypse, so maybe he’ll return to talks since we know he’s considering a run at a superhero role. He had previously been in the mix along with friend Benedict Cumberbatch for Doctor Strange and having to exit the Rick Flag role in Suicide Squad due to taking a part in The Revenant leading to his Oscar nomination.
He was also named by Hugh Jackman as someone who he’d like to see become the successor to the Wolverine role, even though it sounds like producers aren’t interested in recasting the the part.
Personally, I think the Oscar nominated actor would make a great straight-man for Ryan Reynolds. He’s also the right age to start-up a franchise, if they do hope to add him to things like X-Force or even a run of solo films.
Deadpool 2 hasn’t been given an official release date but we assume it’ll end up out sometime in 2018.
SOURCE: CINEMA BLEND