Ever since Cable was mentioned at the end of Deadpool during the post-credits scene, there has been plenty of anticipation for the character’s arrival in Deadpool 2. No word on Keira Knightley actually signing on to play the role, but there are apparently plenty of other options if she were to fall through or have no idea the role exists.
The casting is only part of the trouble when it comes to Marvel’s time-traveling mutant mercenary. It’s his convoluted background that seems to be giving writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese some headaches according to Collider. But they seem to have at least part of it figured out for the leap to the big screen:
WERNICK: So with Cable, he’s got such a convoluted past, and such a convoluted origin story that I think we’re going to try to leave that, not mysterious, but there are a lot of twists and turns, cloning and all this stuff where you go, “Oh my God. How do we get that across in a two hour movie?” I think we’re going to distill him down to his essence. It will be authentic and faithful, but it’s not going to include the 18,000 details if you were going to read a Wikipedia page about Cable you’d roll your eyes.
Since this is Deadpool, why not look at the deep origin for Cable as another outlet for jokes? I’m sure Wernick and Reese are definitely going to poke a little fun, but we also don’t need that much background for anything that’s going on. There was no real background for the X-Men we met in the first Deadpool film, like Colossus for example. Why was he a giant Russian instead of the guy we’d been introduced to for a few movies? It doesn’t matter at all and the version we got in Deadpool is perfect. No reason they can’t do the same for Cable.
As for the casting, we’ve heard plenty of names legitimately connected to the role. Stephen Lang was really interested and Kyle Chandler was in the lead at one point, but there is no firm selection just yet. We can likely expect some answer in the near future because the actor — or actress — who ends up playing Cable will help determine how the character is written for the screen:
There’s been so many diverse people that have been brought up as possibilities for Cable, and who have not been brought up but we’re considering. And that, much like with Ryan [Reynolds], that decision will greatly impact his cadences, his rhythms. And we’ll certainly make him like he is in the comics, and we’ll certainly be faithful, but I do think that voice will inform us quite a bit.
Who would you want to play Cable in the next Deadpool? My money is on Scott Baio right now. Guy is a hot commodity and that star is going to continue to rise over the next four to eight years.