Deadpool 2 hasn’t even hit cinemas yet but Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin, and Ryan Reynolds are already reported to have signed on for a follow-up (Picture: Marvel/Fox)
Pump the hate breaks Thanos, because Josh Brolin is headed back to Fox’s X-Men universe as Cable.
The Avengers: Infinity War star, who plays the central villain in both the third and fourth MCU blockbusters, will continue to straddle the Marvel cinematic divide as he has reportedly signed on to reprise the role of Nathan Summers in a third Deadpool film.
He will return to his role as the time-travelling mutant alongside Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool/Wayde Wilson) and Zazie Beetz (Domino) in a direct follow-up to this summer’s Deadpool 2.
The 50-year-old Sicario star hasn’t even appeared in the role but it seems that Fox are predicting the follow-up to one of 2016’s surprise box office smashes will be just as big – if not bigger – according to That Hashtag Show.
Josh Brolin will continue to straddle Marvel cinematic universes as he gets set to reprise his role as Cable in X-Force (Picture: 20th Century Fox)
The website reports that on top of Zazie’s three-deal contract to play Domino, a character rooted heavily in Deadpool and the X-Men universe, Brolin has also signed on for a second film in the mutant-central universe.
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In fact, that’s just the beginning as they will supposedly reunite with Ryan Reynolds in the X-Force film.
Little is known about what will be a third cinematic outing for the Merc With A Mouth, other than it will revolve around the newly formed mutant strike team – who are about to make their debut in Deadpool 2.
X-Force is slated to start production this autumn after the team’s debut in Deadpool 2 (Picture: Marvel)
So far Ryan is attached to the project as the leading man, and he is also down to executive produce the film – as he has done with Deadpool’s first and forthcoming second outings.
The basic premise of the film on IMDB is that a ‘time-traveler assembles a team of mutants in order to prevent the wrecked future he came from’.
That would indicate that Ryan and director/writer Drew Goddard are planning to lift a storyline from the original late ‘80s/’90s outings of X-Force featuring Cable and Domino.
Deadpool cropped up in the early issues of the comic, however, he wasn’t a fully-fledged member of the team until Uncanny X-Force was released in 2010.
At this point everything is speculation, as the film isn’t due to go into production until October, but it would be highly likely that it would splice together two or more aspects of classic X-Force storylines.
MORE: Donald Glover’s animated Deadpool series on FX has been cancelled
MORE: Deadpool 2’s new trailer introduces us to the real X-Force and takes pops at both the MCU and DC
Josh Brolin was one of the five Avengers: Infinity War actors to join Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show on Wednesday. And it turns out Brolin, who plays Thanos, had some of the best stories to tell.
Before even taking the Marvel role, Brolin sought advice from Mark Ruffalo. "I called Ruffalo, who I've known for a long time, and I said 'Hey man, what do you think? Like should I do this?' And he goes, 'You'll feel more out of sorts than you've ever felt because you have a Velcro onesie on, you have dots on your face, you have a helmet with a cam. But when you ultimately see it you'll be blown away,'" Brolin recalled. "So then when I saw Mark honestly four years later on the set, he was in his onesie, I was in my onesie. We both had our dots. We walked toward each other and he goes 'I'm so done with this.'"
Of course, now that Brolin is playing the Mad Titan Thanos, you would think his family would be excited about his new major role. Wrong. Brolin revealed his brother, who he called a comic book "fanatic," had a few questions for him playing Thanos. 1: "Why?" 2: "What are you doing to prep?" Unfortunately, his brother was not impressed with Brolin's preparations. "That's totally wrong," he told him. Brolin's brother even turned down the offer to attend the premiere with him. "He chose not to be at the premiere because he wanted to see it in a group with his friends." Ouch.
During his time on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside Chris Hemsworth, Chadwick Boseman, Karen Gillan, and Sebastian Stan, Brolin also drew Thanos' "scrotum face," claimed he stole a "leopard-skin thong" from Thanos' wardrobe, and accused Hemsworth of stealing his shine since the Thor star was wearing a purple suit.
After a brief cameo in 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and another in 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Josh Brolin will make a full-fledged and villainous appearance as Thanos in this week’s blockbuster movie “Avengers: Infinity War.” The film is the latest in the popular series of films based on the Marvel comic books.
It was over 30 years ago that the teenage Brolin made his film debut in “The Goonies” but it is only in the last 10 years or so that he has risen to the top of the list of respected actors and become a full-out movie star. As Brolin himself joked on an episode of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” he got everything wrong for the first half of his career and only recently started getting it right. Brolin is perhaps being too hard on himself since he has had a very steady rise in show business and slowly developed into a more and more respected actor.
Brolin is the son of actor James Brolin, who came to fame on TV’s “Marcus Welby M.D.” and currently appears on the CBS sitcom “Life in Pieces” as well as being the husband of film icon Barbra Streisand. After his auspicious start in “The Goonies” Josh Brolin actually left Hollywood and film acting for a number of years because he was so upset with how bad his acting was in a little seen film called “Thrashin.” He retreated to Rochester, NY and appeared in regional theater where he learned to improve his acting skills from fellow actor Anthony Zerbe.
Brolin slowly started working again on television and had a three-year run on the TV series “The Long Riders.” His film career started up again in full force in the late 1990s with supporting roles. He scored a success on the New York stage when he replaced Philip Seymour Hoffman in the cast of “True West” at the Circle in the Square Theater on Broadway.
With Brolin’s debut in the world of Marvel, Gold Derby takes a tour of the greatest roles of Brolin’s film career and choose his top 15 performances, ranked worst to best. The photo gallery includes his Oscar-nominated “Milk” plus “No Country for Old Men,” “Sicario” and more.
15. THE DEAD GIRL (2006)
This complex film which tells five different stories all centering on a murdered young woman (Murphy) features Brolin in one of his key supporting roles prior to his full out movie stardom. Brolin plays a john of the title character’s whose life has sunk to such a level that she has to turn to prostitution.
14. EVEREST (2015)
Brolin plays a doctor and amateur mountain climber in this true-life story of a horrible blizzard in 1996 that stranded a bunch of people trying to climb the tall peak. The film features amazing scenery and a suspenseful plot of survival and endurance.
13. GRINDHOUSE (2007)
Brolin has a key role in this compilation and salute to old exploitation films that used to populate cheap movie theaters. While the violence and over the top action turned off some viewers Brolin does well with his screen time alongside a nearly all-star cast.
12. HAIL, CAESAR (2016)
Brolin reteamed with his long-time collaborators the Coen brothers only this time he had the lead role in this tale of the 1950s Hollywood studio age. Brolin plays a “fixer” who is called upon to handle the various problems and scandals his actor clients find themselves involved in. As the calm in the center of many storms Brolin is suave and dignified as he tries to iron out the problems his clients get themselves into.
11. ONLY THE BRAVE (2017)
This story of an Arizona firefighter’s quest to train his own team of forest fire fighters opened last year to genuinely strong reviews but failed to make much of an impact at the box office. The Toronto Star singled out Brolin as being “superb and sublime as the gruff Marsh, a man quietly battling his own inner demons.”
10. IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (2007)
Mostly remembered for its surprise Best Actor Oscar nomination for star Tommy Lee Jones, this story about a father searching for answers to his son’s disappearance was part of Brolin’s stellar output in 2007. The actor got to literally play both good cop and bad cop this year since in this film he plays a sheriff as honorable as his character in “American Gangster” was dishonorable.
9. THE GOONIES (1985)
Few actors get the chance to hit it big the first time out but that happened to Brolin in his debut film. While the film was a box office success it received mixed reviews upon its first release. Cable TV was quite kind to the film though and as a generation grew up having the film as a treasured memory. As the only teenage principle character among the child cast Brolin shone as the kind of stalwart big brother most kids dream of having.
8. AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007)
The year 2007 was one that really put Brolin in the big leagues with four performances in major films. The big draw on this particular film was to see titans Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe go mano a mano, but Brolin more than holds his own as a sinister and corrupt New York City police detective.
7. SICARIO (2015)
Brolin often seems cast as law enforcement officials and “Sicario” is not an exception to this pattern. Here he plays a Department of Justice official working on the drug war along the US Mexico border.
6. FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (1996)
After working primarily on television for the decade after “The Goonies” Brolin returned to the big screen as yes, another police officer in this first major star-studded film from David O. Russell. This is a bit of a different situation since as the story evolves we begin to see that Brolin and has police partner (Richard Jenkins) are more than just police partners but romantic partners as well.
5. TRUE GRIT (2010)
The original version of “True Grit” won an Oscar for John Wayne in 1969 and Jeff Bridges received a nomination for this version in the same role. This version by the Coen brothers followed the original novel more closely than it did the previous film version. Brolin plays the murderer of the father of the teen age girl at the center of the film. He makes the role his own and avoids the pitfalls of making the character too much of a mustache twirling stereotypical villain.
4. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)
Brolin was among the ensemble of actors in this the most Oscar awarded of the Coen brother’s films. The movie won four Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for the brothers and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem. Brolin has a pivotal role in the film as a hunter who finds two million dollars that belonged to two murdered drug dealers.
3. W. (2008)
Brolin received some award attention for this biopic of the 43rd U.S. President. Oliver Stone and his films are usually lightning rods for controversy and this film was no exception. The only surprise about this film may be that the notoriously liberal Stone made a film that was much more sympathetic to the president than had been expected.
2. INHERENT VICE (2014)
Perhaps one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most divisive films, this film was on the top of some critic’s 10 Best Lists but it also had many detractors as did the book by controversial author Thomas Pynchon. The film was a big success for Brolin, though. His performance as an L.A.P.D. detective earned him nominations from a number of critic’s groups.
1. MILK (2008)
Brolin received his first Oscar nomination as well as the New York Film Critic’s Award and the National Board of Review award as Best Supporting Actor of 2008 for this highly acclaimed biopic of the gay rights activist and San Francisco city official Harvey Milk. The film won Oscars for Sean Penn as Best Actor for the title role as well as one for Dustin Lance Black for his original screenplay. Brolin plays Dan White a fellow San Francisco politician who eventually murders Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
In Avengers: Infinity War, Josh Brolin plays Thanos, a giant purple villain who's looking to wipe out half the universe. Now, Thanos is hugely imposing and clearly a significant threat, but his specific goal means there's also a 50 percent chance that he'll do you no harm whatsoever. So there's room for maneuver here.
Let's take a look at whether Josh Brolin has ever been more threatening. The way we work this out is we look at three things for each of his roles:
1. How likely is it that the character will threaten you?
2. What is the scale of the threat?
3. How likely is it that the character will be able to follow-through on that threat?
We don't necessarily need to answer all of these on each occasion, but this is the basic framework.
For Thanos, he is 50 percent likely to threaten you and he is threatening to actually kill you — which I'm sure you'll agree is pretty much the top level of threat for you as an individual.
How likely is he to follow through? Well, he's up against what is by any measure a formidable array of people who are trying to stop him. Thanos strikes me as a very determined and resourceful individual, but there's a solid chance that he won't ultimately succeed.
All the same, Thanos is pretty threatening. Let's pick out a few more roles and see how they compare.
Credit: Lionsgate
A very unthreatening Josh Brolin character — George W. Bush in W. (2008)
We don't really need to run through the questions for this one because George W. Bush isn't even the most threatening George Bush in this film.
At one point, W. tries to pick a fight with his father, George H.W. Bush, and while he certainly gets points for chutzpah, he is by some margin the less threatening of the two men in that confrontation. That is because George H.W. Bush is played by James Cromwell and James Cromwell does stern, sadistic, and intimidating like no one else on this earth.
James Cromwell is terrifying.
Credit: Sony Pictures
The Josh Brolin character most likely to threaten you — Young Agent K from Men in Black 3 (2012)
Agent K does not initially seem hugely threatening, but at one point in the film, he punches Will Smith's Agent J in the face for lying and then almost immediately punches him in the face a second time for telling the truth.
Agent K is highly likely to threaten you because every possible option available to you apparently warrants a punch to the face. Imagine having to work with someone that violent and unpredictable. Agent K is an incredibly threatening person to be around.
Agent K is less threatening than Thanos however, because of (2), the scale of the threat. All he is threatening to do is punch you in the face.
Credit: Warner Bros.
The Josh Brolin character who would appear quite threatening but, in practice, is not particularly threatening at all — Brand from The Goonies (1985)
I do not have an older brother, but as a child I did encounter other people's older brothers and they always struck me as being the most threatening people in the universe.
"I'm gonna hit you so hard that when you wake up your clothes will be out of style," Brand promises his younger brother at one point in the movie.
That's an overt threat, but context is important. Brand says this because Mikey and his friends have tied him to a chair with his own chest expander and have also let down the tires on his bike.
We can conclude from this that Brand is not threatening.
Credit: Universal Pictures
A threatening Josh Brolin character who is actually pretty easy to avoid feeling threatened by — Joe Doucett from Old Boy (2013)
Joe Doucett is kidnapped and held in solitary confinement for 20 years and he spends most of that time thinking about whoever imprisoned him and what they also did to his wife and daughter. The end result is that Joe Doucett becomes the kind of man who would put a hammer through the top of another man's head.
Doucett falls at question one, however. So long as you haven't kidnapped him and held him in solitary confinement for 20 years, and you haven't done anything with his wife and daughter (and you also aren't friends with someone who might have done any or all of those things), then Joe Doucett is highly unlikely to threaten you.
Credit: 20th Century Fox
The most Josh Brolin character who is threatening in the most unexpected way — Cable from Deadpool 2
I used to work with a guy who said it was perfectly acceptable to give away the plot twist of any film over 10-years0old on the grounds that "you should have seen it by now."
Cable is from the future and therefore has it in his power to spoil any film for you. (1) How likely is he to threaten you with this? Well, we don't know too much about Cable's motivations and ambitions in Deadpool 2 yet, so it's hard to draw firm conclusions.
For the same reason, we don't know whether he has any interest in doing you (specifically) any physical harm. Nor can we confidently predict (2), the scale of the threat, which makes (3), the likelihood of success, largely irrelevant. We're just going to have to wait and see how this one pans out.
Credit: Lionsgate
The most threatening Josh Brolin character — Matt Graver from Sicario (2015)
At one point in the trailer for Sicario 2, CIA agent Matt Graver says: "You want to see this thing through? I'm going to have to get dirty."
This really put me in awe of Graver's scale of dirtiness, because in the original Sicario he tackled drug cartels in a very, very dirty way indeed. At one point, he used a human being as bait and he also does some torture and kills a whole bunch of people.
Matt Graver was already pretty intimidating and if he doesn't consider that behavior to be in any way dirty, I've got to be honest, I'm not keen to go for a drink with him.
At another point in the Sicario 2 trailer, he tells Benicio del Toro's character, Alejandro, that he's going to start a war. "Against who?" asks Alejandro. "Everyone," replies Graver.
That is exactly twice as ambitious as Thanos.
1. How likely is it that Matt Graver will threaten you? 100 percent likely.
2. What is the scale of the threat? War being war, that's a pretty high threat level.
3. How likely is it that he will be able to follow-through on that threat? Based on Sicario 1, highly likely.
Matt Graver is more threatening than Thanos.
Thanos wants to buck his ideas up.
