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One major actor has revealed their failed Deadpool 2 audition – but the MCU X-Men may be able to capitalize on this years down the line. With Deadpool & Wolverine's $1B+ box office making it now one of the most financially successful movies in superhero history, the series has had a spotlight on it more than ever in recent months. The Deadpool trilogy's more playful yet R-rated approach to Marvel lore and adapting it has set it apart from many other superhero films – though the range of talented actors within the series also certainly play a part in its reception as well.
However, one of the most interesting names attached to the Deadpool movie trilogy is actually that of a decidedly famous performer who didn't make it to the final cast list. Based on both their renown and how close the MCU timeline seems to be to having the X-Men become a core part of its main universe, one failed Deadpool 2 audition could well be the MCU's gain.
Related Every Upcoming Marvel Movie: Full MCU Phase 5 & 6 List (& Beyond) Between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment, here is every upcoming Marvel movie release date and what we know about the projects so far.
2 Randy Orton Auditioned For Deadpool 2's Cable The WWE Wrestler Missed Out On Playing Fox's Cable Close In August 2024, WWE star Randy Orton revealed on the What Do You Wanna Talk About? series when talking to fellow wrestling veteran Cody Rhodes that he'd auditioned for the role of Cable in Deadpool 2, stating, "I read for Cable, and in my head, boy, I was gonna be Cable. I was gonna be Cable, and I was like 'this is it'. Nope – no callback, nothing." Orton explained that this gave him a sense of perspective about his wrestling career, and helped him appreciate his profession all the more in the long run.
While Josh Brolin – the actor who was cast for the role, and later the MCU's Thanos – was a solid choice for Cable, Orton's reveal leaves a lot of unanswered questions regarding what his iteration of the Marvel hero could have looked like. As such, this scenario reveals a prospective Cable casting for the MCU that would be solid on several different levels.
The MCU's Cable Debut Is Looking Closer Than Ever The MCU's X-Men Build-Up Makes A Cable Debut More Likely Close With mutantkind and the X-Men becoming a staple part of the main MCU timeline drawing ever closer and closer, the potential for Cable to appear seems closer on the horizon than it ever has before. While the MCU's first forays into bringing mutants into its world have focused on its most central characters – having a variant of Professor X appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness, for example, or featuring Beast in The Marvels' post-credit scene – fixing solely on the main X-Men team would be a limiting decision it seems unlikely for the franchise to make.
This is especially true given audiences have already been given many cinematic releases that placed the spotlight on this configuration of the X-Men, via Fox's X-Men universe and its respective run. Though there's still plenty of stories to tell with these characters, expanding into teams like Cable's X-Force would allow the MCU to set itself apart, and provide a fresh look at this corner of Marvel's franchise to boot.
Adding to this is the fact that Cable's time-traveling story is a great way to flip between points in a timeline should this be wanted, which presents an effective way to explore plot points that otherwise may be hard to fit into stories, and an effective way to clear up plot holes should the need arise. With all of this in mind, there are plenty of reasons for a Cable casting to be needed in the foreseeable future – which could well bring Randy Orton into the role.
Why Randy Orton Makes Sense For The MCU's Cable Casting Randy Orton's History Makes Him A Solid Candidate For The MCU's Cable Close While Randy Orton downplayed his Cable audition by stating that, compared to Brolin, he didn't know what he was doing, the WWE wrestler has in many senses been training for the role for a long time. Orton's in-ring persona generally gives off a gruff and tough tone, matching how Cable is traditionally characterized both on-screen and in the comics, and delivering plenty of lines that wouldn't be out of place coming from Nathan Summers.
Of course, there's also the matter of fighting experience, as Randy Orton has decades of in-ring experience to draw from for the kind of action the MCU thrives on – and that Cable himself is supposed to be well-versed in, warranting an actor with considerable knowledge of how to perform in this regard. While Orton didn't appear in Deadpool 2, he has also had a range of on-screen roles outside of the ring, too, having appeared in the 2016 series Shooter and movies like Changeland, Countdown, and The Condemned 2.
The MCU has recently played with prior missed castings to great effect, with Channing Tatum's Gambit and Henry Cavill's Wolverine both appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine. While Randy Orton's missed Deadpool 2 casting isn't as well-known as these two examples, it is a prospective casting that could work in much the same way, allowing another missed Marvel movie opportunity to come to fruition well after its initial conception.
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*Availability in US The Merc With the Mouth returns in Deadpool 2, "the sequel to the first one." Wade Wilson finds himself alone and without purpose until he reluctantly agrees to join the X-Men. Things take a turn for the strange when Wade finds himself in prison after trying to help a young mutant named Russell, and a time-traveling mutant cyborg arrives to slay Russell to save the future. Determined to save Russell and do the right thing, Wade creates a new team of heroes to fight back and save the world the only way Deadpool knows how – as ridiculously as possible.
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