Wolverine has tangled with a lot of villains in his lifetime, but none quite match his arch-nemesis, Sabretooth. A dark reflection of himself, Sabretooth is as vicious as they come, lacking any of the compassion or self-improvement possessed by Wolverine. The two have a blood feud that spans decades, but their film history together isn't quite as epic, with the character having only shown up twice: 2000's X-Men and 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Tyler Mane played the villain in the original film but Liev Schreiber took over for Origins. The X-Men franchise has never been consistent, but here's why Mane didn't get to reprise the role.
That was the producers' decision. The storyline was them rising as brothers, and Liev [Schreiber] and Hugh look a lot closer in that respect, so I understand. I can't say I wasn't disappointed. I'd love to get my claws back into that role. But that's Hollywood.
Don't worry Tyler Mane, you dodged a bullet on that one.
Tyler Mane played the original Sabretooth in the very first X-Men film, where he mostly growled and delivered some solid fight scenes with Wolverine. However, Fox opted to recast the role for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which saw the character beefed up as Logan's half-brother. Chatting with The Hollywood Reporter on the legacy of Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, Mane was asked why he didn't return to play the character in Origins, and the answer is pretty simple: no one asked him to. Mane admits that that was disappointing, but he also doesn't have to put the worst X-Men movie on his resume, so that evens out.
While Mane wouldn't have really worked for what that movie wanted to do with Sabretooth, he shouldn't feel too bad about it. Fox has never particularly cared about the continuity between their X-Men films, which notoriously have some pretty glaring inconsistencies. Origins alone contributed to a lot of those, and any movie that needs to get wiped away thanks to a timeline reset (X-Men: Days of Future Past) is not something to be proud of.
Mane may not have gotten to do much as Sabretooth, but he still contributed to a fight scene that, while somewhat dated, it still pretty solid. Check out him and Wolverine going toe-to-toe on the Statue of Liberty.
Who knows if we'll ever see Sabretooth again in the movies, but for everything X-Men, make sure to keep it here at CinemaBlend.
