The Top Five Actors Who Should Be Cast as Cable

Onyx Contributor:  Johnny Silvercloud (@JohnnySilverclo)

Cable is Coming to the Big Screen

When 20th Century Fox released the Deadpool movie in February, fans who stayed until the end of the credits got to see Ryan Reynolds reveal that Cable will be featured in the sequel, Deadpool 2.  At the time, this was considered a bold move, since a sequel was never guaranteed.  Ever since the movie’s release, fans have been pondering who should play the iconic Cable, and today, since I’m also a long time fan of Cable, X-Force, and other X-Men affiliates, I’m going to place my hat in on who should be cast as Cable.

For those who don’t know, this is Cable.  This X-Men affiliated character is, in short, a Soldier from a war-torn future who came to the past to prevent things from happening.  He tends to have various types of fantastic technology, such as teleportation devices, and futuristic guns that would put Men in Black’s Noisy Cricket to shame.  He is a telepath/telekinetic mutant who uses most of his powers to keep his techno-organic virus in check.  That techno-organic virus is the reason why the left half his body is cybernetic.  Cable is a tall, gruff, no-nonsense, Soldier-of-Fortune type of guy, who knows military strategy.  In the best sense, he’s the best foil to Deadpool’s character, which is why their comic series have been so successful.  If you want to know more about Cable, you can go here.

Top Five Actors Who Should Be Cast as Cable

5. Stephen Lang

I remember when I first saw Stephen on screen.  It was Avatar; he was the hard-nosed villain Colonel Miles Quaritch who was so badass, I really felt that they should have a prequel movie of him, just to show more of that badass persona.

Well, actually that’s when I thought I first saw him in a movie.  Technically, I saw him first in Tombstone.  Yes, Stephen Lang was in Tombstone as the cowardly Ike Clanton.  The Cowardly Ike Clanton?  Yes, that was him.  Now you know how great of an actor he is.

Stephen Lang looks like he REALLY wants to be Cable.  Me?  I’ll have to decline for two reasons:  [1] I have mind for another solid actor; and [2] I rather have him as some sort of villain in a Marvel flick.  Whether you saw him as Colonel Quaritch or Ike Clanton, he makes a great villain.  Save him for a bad guy.

4. Gerard Butler

There was a time when you only knew this guy as the This-is-Sparta guy.  Well, he’s been a bit busy, being that he’s been in enough action flicks to be cast as an Expendable.  I’ll have to say that he looks pretty good with guns in his hands.  He’s make a decent Cable, but he’d be on the long list in comparison to the top three.

3. Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson makes it to the short list of actors who can be cast as Cable in my opinion.  He would bring the badassness of his character from the Taken series (at least, the first movie) along with a small package of snark than his Star Wars Jedi character had.  I know he can be a bit snarky, for more than Butler and Lang, and yes, that’s required when you are paired with Deadpool, and you can’t screw it up.  He doesn’t look like Cable, but I’m sure he can bring Cable’s character to life on the silver screen.

2. Dolph Lundgren

 Dolph Lundgren has known just as many action movies as Cable has known warfare.  He’s been around for a long time.  Dolph Lundgren is so qualified to be Cable, it’s not even funny.  First and foremost, he’s tall, and that’s important because Deadpool isn’t taller than Cable.  The visual dynamic between Cable and Deadpool has to be parallel to the comics.  Second thing is the voice; he sounds like how I imagine Cable would sound.  He has a badass baritone voice, which is perfect for Cable.  Part of the sound of Cable is the added snark Cable will have to pull off, an boy can be pull that off well.

As a matter of fact, I’ll go as far as saying that Dolph already played Cable before.  And no, I’m not talking about that Punisher movie nobody liked.  If you ever the 1991 martial arts action flick Showdown in Little Tokyo, you would have seen both Cable AND Deadpool in action.  And yes, had this movie been cast in the early nineties, Brandon Lee (bless his soul) would have been undisputed TOP PICK for Deadpool.  I highly recommend checking this movie out just to see what I’m talking about.  This guy can pull off the genius bruiser Cable, flawlessly.  There’s only one man who could get in Dolph’s way from being Cable…

1. Max Martini

Max Martini, in my opinion, is the best pick to cast for Cable.  For starters, he has all the Cable-traits that Dolph Lungren has; he’s tall, he has a badass baritone, and can hold snarky chops from a stoic demeanor.  Don’t think so?  Watch him as Mack “Dirtdiver” Gerhardt  on this show called The Unit and check out how his deadpan snark embodies Nathan Dayspring.  With a Special Ops military show that went on for four years, Max displayed a wide range of depth, being perhaps the most conflicted character on the show.  Dirtdiver is an intense character, and I just know that he would bring that intensity to Cable, if he had the chance.

There’s a couple of things that keeps him above and beyond Dolph in my observations.  For one, he has a thing for military-characters, and how well he does this it’s a good thing.  He plays military characters so well, I’m surprised that he’s never served.  Or at least, there’s no records of him serving.  Another thing he has over Dolph Lundgren, is age.  Martini is significantly younger than Dolph, so technically in the safest sense there’s simply more time for him be in this role.

The fact that he isn’t the most known actor also works; instead of people constantly seeing Cable as some other actor’s on-screen persona (i.e., Sparta-kick guy or Taken guy) people will see and accept him as Cable.  He has more space to BECOME Cable, and this is important, because when actors play pre-existing characters while not becoming that character… it hurts the movie.

Anyway, this is my top five.  I hope Hollywood is listening.