Though we have not seen any footage from Deadpool 2 yet, many fans have already started to get excited about Josh Brolin's portrayal of the gun-toting Cable. The guy not only looks the part, but his history of portraying stoic badasses should bode well for the film. However, it now turns out that Brolin almost turned down the role because of his interest in depicting country music legend George Jones. Brolin recently addressed his Deadpool 2 hesitance and explained:
We were supposed to do George and Tammy May 8 with Deakins shooting and all this kind of stuff. And then it fell through at the last second. Right after it fell through, this Deadpool thing came and they said, 'Are you interested in doing this?' I was like, 'God, I wanted to do George and Tammy.' My wife, thank god, said, 'Just read it. Like why are you even talking? Just like, read it'... So, I read it and I remember it was so funny and irreverent and hysterical that once I got through it I was like, 'That's it.'
You have to admit, Cable and real-life country music icon George Jones are about as far apart as movie characters can get. Brolin was lined up to star in Taylor Hackford's George and Tammy alongside Jessica Chastain, but when the project got put on ice, he suddenly had quite a bit of free time on his hands. Per what he told Collider, at the suggestion of his wife, he warily read the Deadpool 2 script (on his phone, no less), and the rest is history (particularly for a time traveler like Cable).
Of course, it's not hard to understand why Josh Brolin would've wanted to work on George and Tammy before the movie received its delay. Given the sheer amount of praise that Roger Deakins has received for his recent work on Blade Runner 2049, it makes sense to assume that Hollywood heavy hitters (particularly Brolin, who worked with him on Sicario) would line up to collaborate.
Despite admitting his reluctance to take on Cable, Josh Brolin was ultimately sold on the concept of Deadpool 2 for the same reasons that many of us were sold on the original entry in this franchise: the humor. Even in a widely panned film like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds continuously proved that he had what it took to make The Merc With The Mouth into the bonafide smartass that we all know and love from the comics. Brolin must have seen the potential to do the same in the highly-anticipated sequel, because he eventually signed to David Leitch's sequel -- even beating out other rumored Cables like Stephen Lang and Pierce Brosnan.
Josh Brolin will debut his live-action version of Cable when Deadpool 2 premieres in theaters next year on June 1, 2018. Here's everything that we currently know about Wade Wilson's upcoming sequel, and you can catch Brolin in Joseph Kosinksi's Only the Brave when the true story firefighter drama hits theaters on October 20.
