Deadpool Creator Reveals Why Cable Wasn’t In First Film

In the post-credits coda at the end of Deadpool, the title character addresses the audience, telling them that the sequel will feature the time-traveling antihero Cable.

Created by Rob Liefeld — the same guy who created Deadpool — with writer Louise Simonson, Cable is the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor who traveled back from the future to found X-Force.

Since Cable and Deadpool have often been a package deal, some fans wondered why Cable wasn’t there to pitch in during the climactic Deadpool fight instead of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

According to Liefeld, it was he who killed Cable’s first onscreen appearance in the film, which just hit streaming services and comes to Blu-ray and DVD on May 10.

“Half of us believed the movie should involve Cable. I could feel Cable breathing down my neck,” Liefeld told Inverse. “I said, ‘No. Don’t put Cable in the first movie.’ If Cable comes later, great. Deadpool is a vehicle for Ryan to shine. Cable bogs it down, I’m not sure it works as a first film with a general audience. I got in the car and I said, ‘Did I really just kill the appearance of my other more popular character?’”

Cry not for Simonson; besides having Cable slated for a now hugely-anticipated Deadpool sequel appearance, the veteran writer has a number of other notable co-creations, including Steel at DC Comics (who had a poorly-received movie in the late ’90s) and Apocalypse, who is the titular villain of X-Men: Apocalypse, the next Fox/Marvel collaboration following Deadpool to theaters.

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.