Does Josh Brolin's Cable Image Tease Hope Summers in X-Men Movies?
The X-Men movie universe is getting a major new character in the form of Josh Brolin's Cable, and [...]
Story of Hope
The big Easter egg in question here is the teddy bear that Cable has conspicuously clipped to his belt in the photo above. X-Men comic book fans will see that and automatically make the connection that this movie version of Cable will be functioning in the only patriarchal role fans know him to play: protecting Hope Summers, the first mutant baby born after "The Decimation," an event where Scarlet Witch nearly wiped out the mutant population of Earth with no more new mutants manifesting until Hope was born.
In the Messiah Complex storyline, a militant anti-mutant group called "The Purifiers" kill everyone in the town where Hope is born, hoping to eliminate the baby as well. Hope is saved by Cable, who goes on the run from the Purifiers, Mister Sinister's Marauders, and the X-Men, eventually escaping into the timestream with Hope.
Hope stays on the move with Cable, running further and further into the future, where she eventually comes into adolescence, helping to fight "The Messiah War" against Cable's nemesis, Stryfe, and the time-traveling team of Wolverine's X-Force. Hope eventually comes into her own as a hero, joining the X-Men in the present. Her life takes more drastic turns when she becomes the new host of The Phoenix Force, and eventually is infected with a new techno-organic virus, much like the Cable. After curing herself, Hope takes charge of X-Force, breaking away from Cable.
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This small teddy bear may be an indication that Hope Summers is actively present in the X-Men movie universe, but we still have no idea about the circumstances surrounding her. Further teases have come in the form of the Deadpool 2 teaser above, in which the word "Hope" scribbled on the phone booth Deadpool uses was an Easter egg that fans picked up on immediately.
As stated, Hope has been a baby, a child, an adolescent, and finally a young woman in the span of the comics, so there is a wide range for how the movies could adapt her. Also, the upcoming release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, will play a very pivotal role in creating a lot of circumstances that are tangential to Hope Summers' story arc such as establishing The Phoenix Force as something larger than just Jean Grey's omega-level mutant powers. Depending on how that film plays out, and if/how we get other elements of Cable's origin like his evil clone Stryfe, Hope Summers may get a very different origin and arc than she had in the comics. Assuming she's there at all.
The larger X-Men movie universe could definitely be building towards a story arc like "Messiah War," in which Cable and Hope Summers would become central players. The Decimation event has already been teased in some form: Logan's near-future storyline was built on the idea that mutantkind suffered an unprecedented population loss. How/why it happened was never explained, but it could be a small thread that also connects back to the larger story of Hope Summers.
Deadpool 2 will be in theaters on June 1, 2018.
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