Liev Schreiber Almost Reprised His Sabretooth Role in 'Logan'
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine went out on top in Logan, the commercially and critically triumphant superhero drama from director James Mangold, in which the former X-Men member befriends a young girl with powers just like his own. It’s arguably the best film in Fox’s entire extended X-Men franchise. And it might have been an even grimmer, grislier affair if it had followed through on early plans to have one of Wolverine’s greatest nemeses involved.
Speaking to Variety about his new film Chuck (a biopic of the real-life boxer who inspired Rocky), Liev Schreiber revealed that he was approached to reprise his X-Men Origins: Wolverine role as Sabretooth — the very nasty half-brother of Jackman’s Wolverine — in Logan. Alas, due to his work on Showtime’s Ray Donovan, as well as the eventual creative direction taken by Mangold’s film, this reunion wasn’t to be:
“There was an invitation early on from Hugh [Jackman] and [director James Mangold] and I would have loved to work on it,” Schreiber told Variety. “It was very difficult given Ray Donovan’s schedule, and I think they went a different direction as well with story.”
Nonetheless, Schreiber has no hard feelings about this turn of events, expressing enthusiasm for Logan, as well as some bittersweet sadness about the fact that Jackman is now hanging up his claws as the mutant hero.
“I think it’s a terrific movie,” Schreiber told Variety. “I’m just very proud of Hugh and the way that he handled himself with that franchise and that character. It was a great experience to be involved with one of them and to get to work with them. I had mixed emotions when I heard that he was going to retire.”
Considering that Schreiber was one of the lone bright spots in the otherwise messy X-Men Origins: Wolverine, his participation in Logan no doubt would have been a welcome one. Nonetheless, Logan’s success with audiences and critics also suggests that Jackman and Mangold knew what they were doing with their solo superhero outing, which remains a highlight of the early 2017 movie year.
Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth: Watch a character profile from ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’:
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