DEADPOOL 2 Casts Josh Brolin as Cable

The Merc with a Mouth just signed up for Cable.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Deadpool 2, the upcoming sequel to Deadpool, has cast Josh Brolin as Nathan Summers, better known to X-Men fans as the time-traveling, gun-toting, mutant superhero Cable.

This ends a long casting search, with actors Michael Shannon, David Harbour, Russell Crowe and Brad Pitt reportedly up for the part.  THR's sources say that Brolin's deal is for four movies.

Brolin joins returning Deadpool actors Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson, Morena Baccarin as Copycat/Vanessa Carlyle, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus.  Zazie Beetz will debut as Domino.

Brolin, 49, is best known as the supervillain Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Guardians of the Galaxy.  He also starred in the DC Comics film Jonah Hex, and has appeared in the films Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Men in Black 3, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, The Goonies, Sicario, Oldboy, Gangster Squad, Milk, W., American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, Hollow Man, The Mod Squad, Nightwatch, and Mimic.

Created in 1990 by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld, Cable first appeared in The New Mutants (vol.1) #87 as an adult, after debuting in 1986's Uncanny X-Men (vol.1) #201 as the infant son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, created by Chris Claremont.  In his first appearance, Cable came into conflict with Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front, the United States government, and Freedom Force.  The New Mutants intervened and he asked for their help against the Mutant Liberation Front, seeing them as potential soldiers in his war against Stryfe.  He became their new teacher and leader, coming into conflict with Wolverine, noting that the two had an old feud between them.  Cable and the New Mutants teamed up with Wolverine and Sunfire against the MLF, before the group went up against the Genoshans.

With the aid of Domino, Cable reorganized the New Mutants into the group known as X-Force.  Cable eventually revealed that he was from the future and that he had traveled to the past with the aim of stopping Stryfe's plans as well as preventing Apocalypse's rise to power.  Cable traveled between the 1990s and his future with his ship Graymalkin, which contained a sentient computer program called Professor, the future version of the program built into X-Factor's Ship.  

The 1994 miniseries The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix provided further information on the character's back story.  In the future, Mother Askani, a time-displaced Rachel Summers, pulled the minds of Scott Summers and Jean Grey into the future where, as "Slym" and "Redd", they raised Cable for twelve years.  During their time together, the "family" prevented Apocalypse from transferring his essence into a new body, ending his reign of terror.  It was established that Mister Sinister created Cyclops' son Nathan (who became Cable) in order to destroy Apocalypse.

Deadpool 2 is scheduled to arrive in theaters sometime in 2018.