Why Stephen Lang may not be Cable in Deadpool 2, according to Stephen Lang

July 28th 2016, 9:29am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There are some people who are literally born to play certain roles—like it’s in their genetic code. Some of those people include Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, John Wayne as any cowboy, or Donald Trump as King Oompa Loompa. And then there’s Stephen Lang, who seems a perfect choice to play the comic book villain, Cable, who is set to make his big-screen debut in DEADPOOL 2. Lang is tough, has the same haircut, and has the dastardly demeanor he’s brought to roles in movies like AVATAR. He’s perfect for it, he knows it, but he’s preparing for the worst.

Earlier this year we reported on Lang’s campaigning for the role once it was revealed in the DEADPOOL credits that Cable was going to be the next movie’s baddie. But recently Cinema Blend got on the phone with Lang, who is accepting a simple truth behind why he probably won’t get the part:

I think it's highly unlikely that they would ever give me the part, for a number of reasons, one of which being that it's the same studio as Avatar. It's a conceivable it would be a scheduling conflict, but you know, what I've said is that if they did give me the part, they'd be very satisfied – because I'll play the hell out of the part. But if they don't give me the part, then I can be magnanimous in defeat, compliment the actor who does get the part, and console myself with four sequels to Avatar.

The man has a point, but it’s one I've never understood. Sure, having to do so much work on the AVATAR sequels would probably mean Lang wouldn’t have time to do DEADPOOL 2, and Fox (which is doing both franchises) wouldn’t want to take him away from one just to do the other. But on the other hand, if he did find room in his schedule, there’s no reason not to have Lang play both parts. During the Golden Age of cinema, studios like MGM would sign their stars to contracts and have them only do movies with that studio, so as to promote said studio and all that star's future projects. It may be an antiquated method, but it works, and each franchise would advertise the other. So Fox would get more advertising and the perfect actor. Win win.

But no matter what, Lang is still working little-by-little to stay in the game:

The extent of my campaigning for the role was the initial Tweet, and then after that, what I do is, when people do fan art, where they make me Cable, I retweet it, because I think it's cool. Because why not? Because quite frankly, it's a win-win situation.

You can see Lang in the upcoming horror flick DON’T BREATHE (which our own JimmyO gave a 9/10) on August 26.