Joss Brolin, whose name never came in casting rumors for the character, has snagged a four-movie deal to portray Cable. USA TODAY
Josh Brolin has signed on to play comic-book character Cable, opposite Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed mercenary in Deadpool 2, The Hollywood Reporter and The Associated Press confirmed Wednesday.
But, wait, wasn’t Brolin already cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Indeed. Brolin plays Thanos, a supervillain who has a major role in the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War.
Reynolds, himself, made light of the fact that Brolin’s been cast as a second character based on Marvel Comics (though Deadpool is a Twentieth Century Fox film, as opposed to Disney’s Avengers). He tweeted, sarcastically, “You can’t play 2 characters in the same universe!! Josh Brolin was in Sicario and I was in Sabrina The Teenage Witch.”
By Wednesday afternoon, news of Brolin playing Cable in a four-picture deal had lit up social media, with “Josh Brolin” as a top national Twitter trend. Though many online complained about the casting decision, others tweeted in defense of Brolin.
To be fair, Brolin isn’t the first actor to play two Marvel characters. Both Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan played Human Torch in Fox’s Fantastic Four movies, before going on to play hero Captain America (Evans) and supervillain Erik Killmonger (Jordan, in 2018’s Black Panther) in Disney/Marvel films.