Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the few Marvel Studios projects releasing in 2024. A lot is riding on the production being a success, with the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe potentially defined by the Multiverse Saga plot beats of the film. Deadpool & Wolverine needs to bring the Merc with a Mouth into the MCU proper, tie up any loose ends from the FOX era, and establish how the Multiverse will be shaping future narratives. While the two crossed over in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, that interpretation left a lot to be desired. Now, Deadpool & Wolverine is heavily selling its premise on the fact that audiences will get to see this duo team up and fight against one another; a battle that they’ve been waiting decades for. But that’s not the only fight that the film has teased.
One of the most recent trailers for Deadpool & Wolverine suggests that Logan and Sabretooth will be doing battle once more on screen. It’s treated as a conflict that audiences would be anticipating, but many might be scratching their heads at whether this is an important fight at all. Marvel Studios might be setting fans up for a joke; perhaps this particular battle will be over almost instantly, in a surprise twist. But there’s a lot more to this fight than meets the eye. There’s the complex comic book history, the X-Men movies from the 2000s, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine to take into consideration. What might become a throwaway joke or a genuinely thrilling fight has all the makings of being a legitimately iconic moment that builds on years of storytelling. The question is, will audiences remember all of those major beats that make this showdown important? This is just a taste of the long and notable history between the two characters that ensures that a face-off between Wolverine and Sabretooth might be bigger than many would expect.
Wolverine & Sabretooth Have a Complex Comic History
The Comics Reveal A Long & Storied Rivalry
Wolverine and Sabretooth have crossed paths as allies and enemies repeatedly over the decades. They have a special relationship and although they were not originally portrayed to be brothers by blood, there is a brotherly connection between them. Initially, the plan was for Sabretooth to actually be Wolverine’s father, but that particular narrative plot was dropped before it was given a chance to come to fruition. That would have made for quite a complicated familial dynamic. But, Sabretooth has nonetheless been somewhat of a mentor and equal to Logan. In fact, with powers that parallel one another, Sabretooth has always been the threat that Logan couldn’t quite thwart. His healing abilities, claws, and general bloodlust have meant that whenever Sabretooth is on the scene, Wolverine is expecting a dangerous and brutal fight. Continuity has repeatedly been altered, and the shared past between Wolverine and Sabretooth has also been shifted. In some versions, they fought wars side-by-side, while in others, their ideologies clashed too much to form an alliance. The Weapon X program is also a major part of their crossover, with both seemingly experimented on by those who wish to weaponize Mutants. It seems strange that Sabretooth, a character that was treated as a henchman for so long, has become such a vital part of Wolverine’s superhero career. But constant tweaks to the character have ensured that there’s a rivalry worth investing in.
Throughout the various interpretations, there’s a consistent theme in this rivalry. The notion that Sabretooth wishes for Wolverine to embrace the darker sides of himself. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants member has always considered himself to have an insight into Logan that few others can match. His idea that Wolverine isn’t the hero he claims to be is only backed up by Logan’s own fears about his brutality and animal-like instincts. Sabretooth has wholeheartedly claimed the evil inside of him and wants Wolverine to clutch on to that same corruption. But both characters also feel like outcasts, seeming out of place in modern society. Sabretooth is thrown into the Krakoan pit, for instance, while Wolverine has always been the outsider on most of the teams he joins. What’s obvious is that irrespective of the iteration, the intense bond and background that Wolverine and Sabretooth share have made them increasingly interesting adversaries, and they have killed each other on a few occasions. Their narrative is one that would make for a fantastic cinematic spectacle, which is why it’s all the more strange that when Sabretooth and Wolverine were first placed on screen together, they didn’t quite have the history that the comics have implied them to possess.
The Original X-Men Pitted the Duo Against One Another
The Brotherhood Member Doesn’t Have a Significant Connection to Wolverine
X-Men from 20th Century FOX was released in 2000 and was an instant hit. It was produced in an era that was void of any proper Marvel superhero properties on screen, outside of a few underrated favorites, but would predate an incredible boom that included the likes of Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. X-Men made a massive mark due to its intelligent casting, action-packed set pieces, and surprising thematic exploration. Wolverine was an instant star and has stayed with the franchise ever since, with Hugh Jackman reprising his role in Deadpool & Wolverine. But the movie also introduced Sabretooth on screen for the first time, a quiet brute that acted as a henchman for Magneto.
The X-Men timeline has become incredibly confusing since this initial release, with the likes of Logan complicating things. But here was a character that had solo runs on the page and would one day become even more integral to Wolverine’s history in the source material and in cinema. Yet, in X-Men, he was treated as a side character, another member of the ensemble, albeit one with a penchant for violence. In some ways, fans would be forgiven for not finding this adaptation of Sabretooth all the more memorable. He didn’t have a lot to do in the plot, but his appearance was, at the very least, comic-accurate. There was a vulnerability and yet strength to the design, with a ferocious edge and wild undertone. This Sabretooth looked unpredictable and monstrous and fought as one might expect. Claws, teeth, and incredible strength were all tools that Sabretooth relied upon to push back the X-Men. He wasn’t an instantly iconic villain, but he did provide one of the best battles of the movie.
One of the most significant conflicts in the film sees Logan and Sabretooth bare their teeth and come to blows. With a snowy backdrop, Sabretooth lashes out at Wolverine, and the X-Man finds that his skills are suddenly matched more than he would like. It’s perhaps a fight that hasn’t aged too well, but it’s one that showed the potential of these two characters and indicated that, on some level, they were equals. The duo would fight again in the Statue of Liberty later on in the film, but Sabretooth wasn’t featured in the rest of the X-Men trilogy, despite what he brought to the table. Ultimately, while Logan was given a full arc concerning his identity and search for somewhere to belong to, Sabretooth was treated as a physical threat to act as a minor boss battle.
Regardless, he filled that role well. The audience, upon seeing those few encounters between the pair, will have an insight into why they may be such good opponents. But there’s room to grow and for the fight to evolve so that there’s more to the choreography and set pieces than a simple back-and-forth. With the backdrop of psychic powers, laser eyes and mastery over magnetism, Sabretooth and Wolverine’s fights represented a grounded and gritty realism that isn’t seen elsewhere in the film. Perhaps that’s what made those early encounters so appealing because they represented something completely different. It goes without saying that X-Men failed to fully comprehend what else could come from Sabretooth and Wolverine’s rivalry here, but it simply didn’t serve the story they were telling. However, FOX decided to return to this dynamic for a future film in the most unexpected of ways. A fresh start meant disregarding everything that happened here and rewriting one of Marvel’s best comic book villains.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Redefined Their Relationship
Logan Suddenly Had a Brother
Sabretooth took a back seat in X-Men, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine sought to make him a defining player. Contrasting heavily with the comics, the movie depicted Sabretooth as Wolverine’s brother. Their bond was thus made familial, as the two faced down immortality together. They fought across multiple wars, were experimented on and weaponized by the Weapon X program, and ultimately found themselves on opposing sides. The battles between the two were made far more intense by that long and complex life together. There were genuine emotional stakes attached to their feud. Although the movie was far from perfect, and there were tweaks to be made here and there that would make it much more loyal to the comics themselves, this was a change that seemed to resonate with audiences. Indeed, while the Sabretooth of the X-Men movies was somewhat lifeless, this was a figure with charm, depth, and all of that rage. Perhaps, in some ways, the look of this Sabretooth wasn’t quite what comic fans might have hoped for. But from a narrative perspective, he was no longer a henchman. He went from ally to major antagonist and made the character’s inclusion far more worthwhile than many would have predicted.
Again, the combat is a major part of that rivalry, with Wolverine and Sabretooth finding themselves pretty evenly matched. While in the first X-Men movie, Sabretooth actually bested his enemy the first time around, this movie saw the duo trading victories and defeats. The fight in the bar and the fight on the island are the standouts, with each attempting to use their strength and savagery to neutralize the other. What’s particularly stark is that same thematic thread that ran throughout the comics. The idea that Sabretooth was always more willing to tap into his animalistic side while Logan resisted those urges was on full display. The way that Logan would hold back or attempt to quell his rage, while Sabretooth found a sadistic glee in the pain that he dealt out, was an interesting contrast. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is all about Logan finding out who he really is, and his brother is a major part of that puzzle. Sabretooth is everything that he isn’t. Of course, from a canon perspective, this complicated the X-Men timeline once more. The Sabretooth seen in X-Men seems like a different beast altogether than the one portrayed here. But audiences are still fed a key lesson, that Sabretooth can be an important part of Wolverine’s journey if he is handled correctly. It’s very apparent that Disney and Marvel Studios want to draw on those contrasting appearances to create a final realization of this rivalry that does the page and the characters involved justice.
Deadpool & Wolverine Brings These Narrative Threads Together
When Deadpool & Wolverine was initially announced, the idea of Sabretooth and the masked Mutant Wolverine clashing against one another wasn’t the first thing on fans’ minds. The trailer that showcased the two characters finally reunited in a bloody battle certainly didn’t change that mindset. But, when looking at their history on the page and on the screen, there’s definitely something more to this. Deadpool will be looking to bring out the true Wolverine to help him in his fight to save the Multiverse. By facing off against this old enemy, some of those dormant emotions and thematic narrative beats will be brought up again, perhaps restoring Wolverine to who he once was. For the character, it’s a measurement of how far he’s come and whether he’s improved and evolved from who he once was. Physically, it serves as a significant test, too, to measure whether Logan has lost a step at all. But for the MCU, there’s a timeline problem to take into account, which the movie may be addressing with this inclusion. The Sabretooth brought into Deadpool & Wolverine is the same as X-Men. That means that the early fight that fans witnessed can be improved upon, and the full potential of that conflict can be finally realized in a modern blockbuster. That in itself is pretty exciting, but will this version of Sabretooth also be portrayed as Wolverine’s brother? Perhaps a joke will be made of the whole thing, and the true nature of their connection will be mocked somewhat as a piece of continuity that no longer matters.
But there’s also room for Deadpool & Wolverine to bring new layers to these figures and finally reconcile the siblings. There are rumors that the Sabretooth from X-Men Origins: Wolverine will also be making an appearance. It wouldn’t be the first time that Multiverse versions of Marvel characters have teamed up, and in the comics recently, Sabretooth looked for Variants to back him up against the Adamantium-clawed Mutant. Deadpool & Wolverine is setting up an interesting conundrum that pits Wolverine against the demons of his past. The character has always had a weight on his shoulders, but maybe this is one of the ways to lift it. Whether all of these narrative threads are tied together to improve upon the characters remains to be seen, but audiences going into Deadpool & Wolverine should know that this fight has a lot riding on it and could be something truly special. This is an excellent use of Multiverse lore, tapping back into the movies from the past to learn something new about the heroes of today. It might not be quite as emotionally important as this writer hopes, but there’s room to showcase a new side of Wolverine, one that is finally satisfied with the life he has left behind. Claiming his role as a father in Logan was one major part of that journey, but reclaiming his part as a brother should be just as special.
