Cable's Mutant Status in Deadpool 2 is an 'Open Question'

CBR

Is Cable a Mutant in Deadpool 2? It's an 'Open Question'

By Renaldo Matadeen

Published May 19, 2018

Questions have been raised over Cable's mutant status in Deadpool 2, but the movie's screenwriters have indicated this was done on purpose.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Deadpool 2, in theaters now.

Fans were over the moon excited when news emerged that the time-traveling soldier known as Cable (Josh Brolin) was going to be used in Deadpool 2, especially considering many felt there was potential to fix Fox's continuity issues with the X-Men film franchise.

One of the biggest things fans also wanted to see was how Cable would be depicted as the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey engineered by the geneticist, Mister Sinister). However, in director David Leitch's sequel, Cable uses technology instead of superpowers; but according to the movie's screenwriters, Cable being a mutant is something left purposely vague.

"I think it is a little of an open question. We’re going to explore Cable more moving forward, we just didn’t want to overload it," co-writer Rhett Rheese said in an interview with CBR. "We did have versions of the script where he was using telekinesis, and it just became — suddenly he was Force-hurling stuff, it felt like Star Wars. We just decided to dial it back. Let’s keep it about technology. Let’s not overwhelm the audience."

When fellow writer Paul Wernick pointed out to Rheese that Cable is able to levitate his gun back to him from anywhere in the film, Reese indicated that this ability may not be mutant-based at all. Of course, some thought otherwise because in the comics, despite being infected with the techno-organic virus, Cable still displayed powers such as telekinesis and telepathy.

"But even that feels like it’s a technology means, as opposed to maybe he’s using his mind to do it," Rheese contended. "It’s just a fine line to making him complex and interesting and not overloading an audience with crazy backstory, and the techno-organic virus, which we’ll get into hopefully in the future, and those kinds of things. We’re just kind of riding that line."

If Cable is indeed a mutant, Wernick made it clear this would be clarified in the future, with Fox's X-Force movie in mind, as they didn't want to overload the audience right now. "It could be a little overwhelming, I think, for a mainstream audience, so we wanted to keep it simple and relatable," Wernick said. "You’ve got this time traveler from the future who’s trying to save his family, I think was the core of who Cable was in a Deadpool 2 movie. Moving forward in X-Force, my guess is that will be explored further and better, and we’ll get more backstory as to who he is and what his powers are."

Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable and Julian Dennison as Russell. The film is playing in theaters everywhere.