Liev Schreiber Reveals Why He Didn't Reprise Sabretooth in Logan

Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine many times since X-Men was released back in 2000, but some actors have only appeared in one film from the long-running franchise. One such actor is Liev Schreiber, who played Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. In the comics, Sabretooth is a longtime enemy of Wolverine, and that continued in this film, but this time he was also the character's half-brother. Originally, the character was meant to appear in the film Logan, but he was ultimately removed from the script. During a recent interview with GQ, Schreiber revealed he was never even asked to be in the film.

"They didn't ask me," Schreiber confirmed. "No, I mean, I don't think he was part of that story, you know? He wasn't part of that story. I would have loved to bring Victor back, anytime anywhere, but he wasn't part of that narrative. I wonder if I'm getting a little long in the tooth, so to speak, but probably not for Sabretooth."

Back in 2017, Jackman confirmed that he and director James Mangold discussed having Sabretooth in Logan. 

"Jim [Mangold] and I did talk about it," Jackman told Collider. "For my money, [Liev Shreiber] was the best thing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I thought Ryan [Reynolds] made a lot out of his bit for it. I was always like 'That would be so cool' and the original script for X-Men Origins was a much smaller movie. We were sort of toying with the idea, in a way, of what we ended up doing with Logan—it was going to be a movie about these two brothers. Then different circumstances came in and the movie all of a sudden became twice the size, we had a big release date, and it was all of that. So that never happened, and I had harbored that all along, and of course Jim and I worked with Liev on Kate & Leopold, so we did talk about it it was just 'How the hell do we do it?'" 

Is Deadpool 3 Currently in Production? 

While there are no current plans for Schreiber to return to the world of X-Men, Jackman will be playing Wolverine again in the upcoming Deadpool 3. In fact, the movie just went into production this month, which was a surprise to some considering the Writers Guild of America is currently on strike. Previously, director Shawn Levy confirmed that he was hoping the movie would start filming in May.

"We are writing, rewriting, developing, prepping 'Deadpool' every day now. It is such a blast to laugh every day. It is so delicious to hear and write and come up with these scenes where people are just talking foul," he told Collider. "And the violence is in your face and hardcore, and it's very much a 'Deadpool' movie. And it has Logan in it. And it has Wolverine in it. It's too fun I'm having so much fun, and I haven't even hit the shooting floor yet. [...] I have to say, developing a 'Deadpool' movie is one of the most fun creative experiences of my life because it's not just that it's rated R. It's that it's so filled with self-awareness, and that makes in-writing very, very fun in a way that is unique to that franchise."

Deadpool 3 is scheduled for release on November 8, 2024.