Scrapped X-FORCE Movie Would Have Pitted Josh Brolin’s Cable Against His Evil Clone

Fox’s X-Force movie could have given Josh Brolin one hell of a mutant acting challenge. Instead of simply returning as Cable after Deadpool 2, Brolin was apparently being lined up to play Cable’s twisted clone Stryfe as well, putting the actor on both sides of the fight.

The project was in development before Disney acquired Fox in 2019, with Drew Goddard, writer and director of The Cabin in the Woods, attached to bring the mutant strike team to the big screen. The movie was intended to build on the events of Deadpool 2, where Wade Wilson assembled his hilariously ill-fated version of X-Force.

Disney’s acquisition ultimately killed the project before it could happen, and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool eventually made the jump to the MCU with Deadpool & Wolverine. But Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has now shared some interesting details about where Fox planned to take X-Force, including a major role for Brolin.

Speaking with The Direct, Liefeld explained that Brolin’s multi-film deal as Cable was expected to lead directly into X-Force, where he would also take on the role of Stryfe.

“I think I think it’s safe to say, Josh [Brolin] was really excited, because he signed a multi-picture deal, and he was excited about the prospect of not only playing Cable, but longtime fans of X-Force know that he would have been portraying Stryfe as well.”

For anyone unfamiliar with Stryfe, things get wonderfully messy in the way only X-Men comics can. Stryfe is a clone of Cable, the time-traveling son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor.

The Askani created the clone as a contingency in case Cable died, but Stryfe eventually fell into the hands of Apocalypse, who intended to use him as a host body. Apocalypse later abandoned him following a major defeat, and Stryfe’s discovery that he was actually the clone sent him down a seriously destructive path.

That history would have made Brolin playing both Cable and Stryfe a pretty awesome hook for the movie. Cable is the hardened soldier trying to accomplish what he believes is necessary, while Stryfe takes that intensity and sends it into full supervillain territory.

According to Liefeld, Stryfe wasn’t simply one possible villain being tossed around during development. He was locked into Fox’s plans for the movie, and the studio even considered setting up his arrival during Deadpool 2.

“The X-Force movie that was going to be coming to screen that Fox had planned before Disney bought the Fox catalog; he was absolutely in that movie,” he said. “Spoiler alert! It would have been great… There were, at one point, discussions about him being in an after-credits scene in Deadpool 2, but they struck that.”

Had Fox gone through with that post-credits scene, audiences could have walked out of Deadpool 2 knowing that another version of Brolin’s character was coming. It also would have established a much more personal conflict for Cable heading into X-Force.

Brolin was apparently very into the idea. “But no, Josh [Brolin] told me, ‘The opportunity to portray those two characters, the two sides of the coin, being the good and the evil, was something he was really excited about,” he said. “But I mean, again, in respect to Josh, there’s a possibility he has moved way beyond.”

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Goddard’s planned story. Liefeld hasn’t revealed what Stryfe’s master plan would have been or exactly how Deadpool, Cable, Domino, and the rest of the X-Force lineup would have been pulled into his fight.

The comics certainly offer some possibilities. One particularly interesting direction would have been the Legacy Virus, the deadly disease Stryfe unleashed against mutantkind.

An X-Force movie built around Cable and Deadpool trying to stop Stryfe from unleashing or spreading the virus could have given the film some legitimately high stakes while leaving plenty of room for Wade to spend the entire adventure wondering where the hell the X-Men are when mutants actually need saving.

It’s easy to imagine the dynamic. Cable is forced to confront a villain who literally shares his face, Domino is trying to keep the mission from falling apart, and Deadpool is making everyone’s situation considerably more irritating. That sounds like a pretty damn fun foundation for an R-rated mutant action movie.

Whether any pieces of this abandoned project eventually find their way into the MCU remains to be seen. Goddard returning for an X-Force movie seems unlikely considering how much his career has moved forward.

Following his work adapting Project Hail Mary, he’s also involved with The Matrix 5, so Marvel would have to bring him back into a project that has been sitting dead for years. But X-Force itself could still have a future.

Marvel Studios is moving deeper into mutant territory as the MCU develops its plans for the X-Men, and Brolin already has history with Marvel beyond Cable thanks to his years playing Thanos.

Bringing him back as Cable would be an easy way to reconnect with the Fox-era Deadpool films, while introducing him as Stryfe could give Marvel a wonderfully strange way to reuse an actor audiences already associate with two major Marvel characters.

There’s also no guarantee Marvel would follow Fox’s original blueprint. A future X-Force movie could take pieces of Goddard’s abandoned concept, start over completely, or save Cable and Stryfe for another mutant project.

Still, knowing Brolin could have played Cable and Stryfe against each other makes Fox’s canceled X-Force movie sting a little more. Watching Brolin go from Cable’s grizzled, reluctant hero to a completely unhinged version of the same man sounds like exactly the kind of comic book insanity that could have worked.

We’ll never know exactly what Goddard’s X-Force would have become, but the pieces we’re hearing about make it sound like Fox had a potentially awesome mutant movie sitting on the table before everything changed.