If you’ve been keeping track of the things we know about Deadpool 3, then you’re well aware that it’s the latest MCU entry to play around in the Marvel multiverse. Specifically, the threequel looks to primarily be leaning into the Fox era of Marvel movies, as evidenced by the Deadpool 3 cast list officially featuring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, as well as characters like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra being reported/rumored to appearAgain. Now it looks like the upcoming Marvel movie will be bringing back a classic X-Men villain, and while I am delighted by this update, I also wish this return had happened sooner.
Before going any further, I’m going to include a SPOILER WARNING, as the details that have emerged concerning this villain lay out what happens to them.
Thanks to set photos shared by The Mirror, we now know that Sabretooth, arguably the top contender for Wolverine’s arch-nemesis, will appear in Deadpool 3. These photos show the clawed mutant and the Merc with the Mouth fighting the fanged mutant in what’s described as a “desolate wasteland,” and his appearance is modeled after how he was depicted in 2000’s X-Men. However, it appears to be a stunt performer portraying Sabretooth in the photos, and it’s unclear if Tyler Mane will reprise the role.
More importantly, it’s shown that Sabretooth will be defeated via beheading. Specifically, the outlet reports that Wolverine slices off his adversary’s head, and Deadpool carries it around afterwards. Sabretooth will also reportedly be joined by Toad in Deadpool 3, who was played by Ray Park in X-Men and Evan Jonigkeit in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
On the one hand, I’m glad to see that Sabretooth will be involved in Deadpool 3, as he’s one of those X-Men characters I’ve felt was underutilized in the original X-Men film series. Having said that, and also factoring in that it looks like he’ll only be making a minor appearance in the threequel, I wish that Sabretooth’s return had happened a lot sooner. And no disrespect to Tyler Mane, but I wish it’d been the Liev Schreiber version we met in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Schreiber’s performance was one of the few bright spots in the first solo movie focused on Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and there had been talk about his Sabretooth appearing in 2017’s Logan. After all, while the first X-Men movie acted as though Wolverine and Sabretooth had never met each other before, Origins revealed that they were half-brothers and spent more than a century fighting in wars together until they went their separate ways. It would have been great to see Jackman and Schreiber side by side again in Logan, particularly since at the time, this was expected to be the former’s last Wolverine appearance, but alas, it wasn’t to be.
Since the Sabretooth we’ll see in Deadpool 3 is modeled after Mane rather than Schreiber, it’s unclear if his and Wolverine’s past as brothers will be referenced at all, be it seriously or as a trademark Deadpool joke. Regardless, even if we’ll only see him for a few minutes at most, it’ll be nice to see him back in action. I just wish we’d gotten to see a little more from Schreiber’s Sabretooth before Deadpool 3’s arrival, and even better, it would have been great if Schreiber himself cameoed in the threeequel. But again, things just didn’t work out that way.
Deadpool 3 is now set to come out July 26 on the 2024 movies calendar. You can revisit the first two Deadpool movies with your Disney+ subscription while making your way through the Marvel movies in order.
