A new minute-long preview for Deadpool & Wolverine was released today, giving us official confirmation of another returning face from the X-Men’s cinematic past via Tyler Mane as Sabretooth, playing the character for the first time since the original X-Men movie in 2000. This will be the third live-action movie appearance by Sabretooth, though his previous two films gave us very different interpretations of the character. Let’s take a little stroll down X-Men memory lane, shall we?
The OG Sabretooth: Tyler Mane
In the comics, the clawed, vicious Sabretooth is one of Wolverine’s most notable and frequent foes, so it makes sense he was used as one of Magneto’s Brotherhood in the first X-Men film, in the process giving Hugh Jackman’s cinematic Logan someone he could go toe-to-toe with. X-Men was the first prominent film role for former wrestler Mane, but the hulking actor would go on to appear in many other projects, including playing Ajax in Troy and Michael Myers in both of Rob Zombie’s Halloween films.
An amnesiac when we meet him, Wolverine/Logan doesn’t seem to know Sabretooth at all in the first X-Men movie. But the same can’t be said for Sabretooth. It’s subtle, but there are signs of some previous history between these two, marked by Sabretooth deciding to take Logan’s dog tags during their first battle. Even more notably, after he shows the dog tags to Magneto, and Magneto discards them on his desk, Sabretooth makes a point of going back to get them for himself, seemingly finding some significance that goes beyond giving his boss information on their opponents.
When the X-Men battle the Brotherhood at the Statue of Liberty, Sabretooth is now wearing Logan’s dog tags, though Wolverine gets them back during their fight. Sabretooth is ultimately defeated when he’s shot by one of Cyclops’ optic blasts, sending him flying off of the statue and onto a nearby boat. Chronologically, that is the last time we’d see Sabretooth in the X-Men films, since the next and only time he’s show up again (until Deadpool & Wolverine, that is) would be in a prequel.
The Origins of Sabretooth… X-Men Origins!
2009’s much maligned X-Men Origins: Wolverine would bring Sabretooth back in a much bigger role, though he would also feel like a very different version of the character. It’s not just that Liev Schreiber was playing him this time, rather than Tyler Mane, but also that he looked so different, stylistically – wearing sleek, dark clothing and sporting short, dark hair, rather than the big, draping furs and long blond hair (and accompanying dramatically big, blond eyebrows) Mane was given. On top of that, Schreiber’s Sabretooth had quite a lot to say compared to Mane’s version, who only had a few lines of dialogue and seemed more at home glowering and snarling than trading barbs with his opponents.
Like his comics counterpart, it turned out the movie Sabretooth was named Victor Creed, but the history between Victor and Logan was deepend considerably in Origins. While it was only implied in the first X-Men, it’s confirmed here that he also has a healing power, like Wolverine, and is likewise centuries old. But whereas the comics use this fact to say their rivalry reaches incredibly far back in the past, Origins instead gave them a much closer relationship, initially, making them half-brothers who grew up as best friends and, eventually, comrades in arms as they fought together in one war after another through the decades.
Eventually though, Sabretooth’s increasingly dark actions and intentions lead to a split between them, which turns into outright hatred as Sabretooth aligns himself with William Stryker, helping Stryker kidnap mutants for his experiments. Sabretooth also hopes Stryker will give him the same adamantium-bonding process Logan was given, though Stryker reneges on that deal, claiming Sabretooth wouldn’t survive it.
At the film’s conclusion, Sabretooth and Wolverine do briefly team up again to battle and defeat Stryker’s seemingly unstoppable Weapon XI, AKA Wade Wilson, AKA the worst version of Deadpool imaginable (they stitched up the merc with a mouth’s mouth?!). When Logan insists this changes nothing and he still wants nothing to do with him, Victor replies they are still brothers, seemingly indicating some wish to reconcile - not that we saw that reconciliation side reflected in Sabretooth’s actions in X-Men. It soon doesn’t matter from Logan’s perspective anyway, because moments after they part ways in Origins, he loses his memories and doesn’t even know who Victor is anymore.
Deadpool & Wolverine: Sabretooth Returns
There was a lot of talk that Liev Schreiber would be returning as Sabretooth in 2017’s acclaimed Logan, with Schreiber confirming there were conversations about it. Ultimately, that didn’t come to be, though screenwriter Scott Frank later explained a bit about story ideas for Sabretooth they dabbled with. However, the Wolverine clone Logan battles in the final version of the movie (played by Jackman, naturally) sure is made to look very similar to the Schreiber version of Sabretooth.
Now though, it’s Tyler Mane who is confirmed to be coming back as Sabretooth, the second alumni from the original X-Men trilogy (not counting Jackman himself) we know for sure is in the movie, after Aaron Stanford as Pyro. Earlier trailers have also shown glimpses from afar of many familiar characters from those films, including what looks to be Deathstrike, Callisto, and more, though it remains to be seen if they will once more be played by the same actors, such as Kelly Hu and Dania Ramirez. Mane’s original X-Men costar, Ray Park, has also hinted he may be back as Toad, potentially giving us a couple of actors returning to the franchise 24 years after their one and only appearances in the X-Men films. (We know one person who won’t be in the film is X-Men: The Last Stand’s Vinnie Jones, who turned down an offer to return as Juggernaut.)
It certainly looks like Deadpool & Wolverine will be addressing the history of the X-Men movies under 20th Century Fox, prior to the studio’s sale to Disney, in a big way — you can see the giant, destroyed 20th Century Fox logo glimpsed in earlier trailers more prominent than ever in the new preview, and it’s expected there will be plenty of other familiar faces showing up. And the combination of Deadpool’s already innately meta nature and this story’s multiverse shenanigans make it feel possible we could even get appearances by more than one actor who’s played the same role in the past, so we’ll see if Liev Schreiber joins Tyler Mane to give us twice the Sabretooth!
