Who is the X-Men villain Sabretooth in Marvel and is he in ‘Deadpool 3?’

We now turn our attention to Deadpool 3, a film which, if the last six months of rumors are to be believed, will just be a two-hour slideshow of thousands of pictures of celebrities dressed as their favorite Marvel characters. 

We know that Wolverine will be there. Elektra is a maybe. Taylor Swift is rumored to be involved somehow, as are most of the actors from 24 years of Fox’s inscrutable X-Men franchise, tons of MCU folks, Luke Skywalker, and a dog. 

And now, thanks to some sneaky behind-the-scenes photos scooped by The Daily Mirror and posted by the living movie spoilers over at the @CanWeGetSomeToast Twitter account, we know that Sabretooth will be making an appearance as well. Who is he? Has he been featured on screen before? The answers to those questions are “A bad guy” and “Yes, but remember how we called Fox’s X-Men movies inscrutable?” Let’s dive in.

Who is (or was) Sabretooth?

In the comics, Sabretooth — real name: Victor Creed — got his start back in August 1977. A creation of the powerhouse team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont, he debuted as an Iron Fist villain. If there’s one thing that all great Iron Fist villains have in common, it’s their ability to distance themselves from Iron Fist, and Sabretooth soon found his feet as an X-Men antagonist, taking part in the deeply unsettling Mutant Massacre storyline in the mid-’80s.

It was a natural fit. Sabertooth is a mutant, one of Marvel’s genetic lottery winners, born with the potential to develop extraordinary abilities. Sabretooth’s suite of superpowers included immense strength and agility, enhanced senses, razor-sharp claws, and the ability to heal from nearly any injury. 

Sound familiar? There’s a reason for that. Initially, Claremont had intended for Sabretooth to be Wolverine’s father, explaining why the two had so much in common, as well as their intense animosity. Later comics would explore more possible genetic ties between Victor and Logan, but for the time being at least, the two are just a pair of mutant slashers with suspiciously similar aesthetics. Still, the two found an instantly classic rivalry in one another, with Sabretooth now traditionally showing up every year on Logan’s birthday to beat him within an inch of his life. 

Over the years, other versions of Victor Creed have graced the comics. Wolverine Noir introduced an alternate take on the character who ran a boxing gym and had an almost instinctive desire to beat his reality’s Logan to a pulp. Mojoworld stories have a real habit of reimagining Sabretooth as an adorable tyke with pinchable cheeks. The Ultimate Universe gave us a version of Victor who, jealous of Wolverine and his three retractable claws in each arm, had four retractable claws implanted into each of his arms. The Ultimate Universe was a hit and miss.

Sabretooth’s live-action debut

Speaking of hit and miss: In the Fox franchise of X-Men films, Sabretooth, like most iconic characters in those movies, had a weird and uneven run. He debuted in live action in 2000’s X-Men, played minimally by professional wrestler Tyler Mane. Visually on-point and sporting a pair of lines of dialogue, he was exactly what he should’ve been in a first-entry story: Mysterious, deadly, with an eeriness that made you eager to stick around and learn more. 

And do you know what eagerness gets you? Almost a decade of waiting, followed by X-Men Origins: Wolverine, that’s what. The 2009 prequel film marked the beginning of Fox’s spiral into entropic continuity. This time, Sabretooth – played by the always-talented and wildly miscast Liev Schreiber — was shown to be Wolverine’s half-brother, accompanying him through a century of battlefields before ultimately parting ways due to his differing views on the subject of killing people. Initial drafts of the 2017 sequel, Logan, would have had Schreiber’s Sabretooth return as the end-of-movie boss fight, but he was later replaced by a digitally de-aged Wolverine clone.

Not to worry, though. If we believe insider Daniel Richtman, Schreiber is set to reprise his role in Deadpool 3 as Victor/Sabretooth. As for the very authentic-looking production pictures above — is it Schreiber… or Mane, since the villain appears to be wearing the same costume and hair the actor flaunted in X-Men (2000)? It’s the sort of possibility that really hammers home the fact that the Ryan Reynolds movie will probably be the first movie in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga to take full advantage of the Multiverse. With any luck, there’ll be a third Sabretooth, too. Maybe that’s what the Taylor Swift cameo will turn out to be.