Sabertooth

[GreenScar]

The Future of Sabretooth in the X-Men Films

In our last discussion of the story and characters of Wolverine 2, we talked a little about Liev Schreiber and what his thoughts were on the sequel.

At the time, he seemed not too interested in putting his body through all the physical work again, now that he’s over 40, but he did say that he’s very interested in seeing how the character of Victor Creed goes from how he portrayed him, to what we saw of the animalistic Sabretooth from Bryan Singer’s first X-Men movie.

Now, it seems that he’s changed his mindset and is in fact interested in returning to the role.

Schreiber, although a strange casting decision initially, was arguably the best part of the highly disappointing Wolverine origins adaptation. In a movie full of weak plot points, bad characterization and a terrible waste of great source material, Liev’s take on Victor Creed was one of the most enjoyable parts of the film.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t make much sense for him in the end and X-Men Origins: Wolverine concluded with Hugh Jackman’s character losing his memory and Sabretooth completely fine, running off after their team-up. From what was shown, Sabretooth has no idea that his brother doesn’t know who he is anymore. Knowing Victor’s nature and his relationship with his brother, more specifically his desire to compete with and be better than Wolverine, he wouldn’t just disappear – we know at some point, Victor would seek out his brother.

So, what happens to him between the end of that movie and where we see him in X-Men? For the most part, all of the films so far and the ones in planning are all sharing the same continuity which means this needs to be explained.

With the sequel following our favorite clawed mutant on his adventures in Japan, the story doesn’t really allow for Sabretooth to partake. However, Schreiber seems interested again and has an idea of what we could see.

Liev Schreiber’s Victor Creed vs. Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth

Schreiber then mentioned again what he’d like to see from the character in the future.

I think a lot of us are curious about that too. That drastic change of character does leave an opening for the character to return and Wolverine not know who he is later in the timeline, when the X-trilogy began.

In the early scenes of the first X-Men movie, Sabretooth ambushes Rogue and Wolverine while they’re out driving in the snowy north. Wolverine smells him and brings out his claws, sensing the danger. Does he just smell another beast whom he knows is responsible for their car crash? Or does he recognize the scent?

From how that film played out, it can’t be the second option. They have no dialogue together at all and from their battles, they act as if they have no history together. So, if Sabretooth does appear in Wolverine 2 or meets the character again in another X-movie, Wolverine must think he dies and/or after the transformation of Creed to the Tyler Mane variant, Wolvy can’t differentiate and they no longer know each other.

There’s been talk of spinoffs for so many of the supporting X-characters but Sabretooth won’t get his own - His origins were shared with Wolverine’s. Could he be a villain along with Magneto in X-Men: First Class? Maybe Magneto would be Professor Xavier’s partner in the beginnings of the X-Men and we can see the construction of Cerebro. That would allow for tie-ins to other movies in planning at Fox Studios for the future of the X-Men film franchise.

With the Magneto movie getting some attention recently, perhaps that film could end with him recruiting some of the mutants we saw in X-Men. I think it’d be cool to see Sir Ian McKellen have a cameo along with Mystique, Toad and Sabretooth. There’s got to be some reason Sabretooth works for him - maybe he’s rescued from experiments and feels some loyalty as Magneto’s pet?

How do you think they’ll explain Sabretooth’s transition and would you like to see Schreiber play him again?

Love me some Screenrant editorials. What do you guys think?

[Lord_Stewie]

interesting read. I don't like how FOX confused the original X-Men's Sabertooth with the Wolverine's one. it was too drastic. why couldn't they hold on to the spririts of the original.

[McGarnigal]

I think you can just rationalize that every few years Sabretooth loses more and more of his humanity.. and looks and acts more animal like. That would explain why he doesnt have strong memories of who he is, but he did have a tiny fraction of an idea by stealing wolverine's dogtags

[McGarnigal]

There was a funny article online a few months ago called someting like "10 Ways Geeks are Ruining Summer Movies" One of the ten was do we really need to know everything about everyones back story? they cited do we really need to see Anakin Skywalker as a 9 year old boy.. cant we fill in some blanks?

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by shadblz

interesting read. I don't like how FOX confused the original X-Men's Sabertooth with the Wolverine's one. it was too drastic. why couldn't they hold on to the spririts of the original.

Probably because they were attempting to rectify the mistake that had been made in the characterization of Sabertooth in the first X-men film.

But then everyone was like "me no understand retcon you explain me why different."

Here's another reasonable explanation: Magneto's mutation machine seemed to be the cause of Jean Grey's enhanced mutation that took her into the Phoenix saga, so perhaps initial testing while working with Magneto caused his animalistic mutation to get even more drastic.

[MAPdead]

Was looking forward to seeing him transform into Sabertooth he was the only bright spot that came out of Origins.

[immortalchaos]

Originally Posted by MAPdead

Was looking forward to seeing him transform into Sabertooth he was the only bright spot that came out of Origins.

He was good but Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson was better. That's my opinion anyways.