- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Sabretooth from the X-Men film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Sabretooth (Marvel).
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| “ | I'm not your friend, I'm an animal who dreamed he was a man. But the dream is over. And the beast is awake. And I will come for you because it is my nature. | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. |
| “ | We could never be done, Jimmy. We're brothers and brothers look out for each other. | „ |
| ~ Victor before separating from Logan, for the last time on good terms. |
| “ | You owe me a scream. | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth to Storm. |
| “ | Ready to die? | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth's final words. |
Sabretooth (real name: Victor Creed) is a major antagonist in the 2000 film X-Men, the secondary antagonist of its 2009 spin-off/prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and a minor antagonist in the 2024 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Deadpool & Wolverine.
He is Wolverine's half-brother and former brother-in-arms when they served under Colonel William Stryker's Team X, carrying out black ops missions. Years later, Sabretooth becomes a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants who serves under Magneto to help mutants dominant over the human race.
In X-Men and Deadpool & Wolverine, he was portrayed by Tyler Mane, who also played Rufus T. Firefly in The Devil's Rejects and Michael Myers in the Halloween remake duology. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he was portrayed by Liev Schreiber, who also played Stu Wargle in Phantoms, Ted Winter in Salt, Ray Donovan in the series of the same name, the Storm King in My Little Pony: The Movie, and Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
History[]
Early Life[]
Victor Creed was born around the 1820s in the area that would be known as Canada to Thomas Logan Creed, an unnamed woman, and his father was the groundskeeper to the Howlett family. Not much is known about Victor's relationship with his father, but he doesn't mourn his death, and even states that he "deserved it". This implies that Thomas was either abusive to Victor due to his alcoholism or neglected his son.
Eventually, Thomas had an affair with Elizabeth Howlett, and the two had a son named James, making him Victor's half-brother. Like his brother James, Victor was born with a mutant gene, which gave him a healing factor and retractable claws. In 1845, Thomas would come to the Howlett estate and murdered Elizabeth's husband John, who was then killed by James, who's mutant genes activated. When James left to the woods, Victor followed him and revealed that they were brothers, and the two decided to leave germanely and never looked back.
War Services[]
During the one hundred and twenty eight years, Victor and James became Canadian mercenaries and assisted the United States military in many wars. Serving in the American Civil War and the two World Wars, Victor and James used their mutant powers to survive fatal injuries and participated in many battles. However in every war he slowly begin enjoying killing people, becoming more ruthless, vicious and brutal.
X-Men Origin: Wolverine[]
Sabretooth and Wolverine have been together, taking care of each other and have been in every American war due to their mutant ability of accelerating healing factor. During the Vietnam War, Sabretooth attempted to rape a Vietnamese village woman, and attacked his unit when they attempted to stop him. For his and James' insubordination, Victor and his half-brother were sentenced to death as a firing squad shot at them. The two survived due to their healing factor, and were placed in confinement due to the military fearing their powers.
Sabretooth's story is somewhat similar and somewhat different to Wolverine's story. They both were in the same team lead by William Stryker, who gave them the choice of staying imprisoned or joining Team X. The members were Agent Zero, Fred Dukes (aka Blob), Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool), John Wraith, and Chris Bradley (aka Bolt), who were assigned in many covert operations. During one mission, Sabretooth and the team were assigned by Stryker to obtain a meteorite (later revealed to be Adamantium) from a diamond trafficker in Nigeria. After completing the mission, the group head to a nearby village where Stryker questions a local about the meteorites. When the villagers refused to tell Stryker about the origin of the meteorite, he orders the team to attack. Wolverine interferes, and leaves the team due to Stryker willing to kill innocent civilians, causing Team X to be disbanded.
Despite the disbandment of Team X, Victor and Agent Zero stayed loyal to Stryker, and became members of his top secret project Weapon X. The project was to capture many mutants and experiment on them, and Stryker would send Victor to capture as many with his tracking skills. He agreed to capture mutants if Stryker could find a way to implement the Adamantium into his body. During one of his assignments, Creed captured Emma Silverfox, the sister to Kayla, who started to work for Stryker so she could save her sister.
Six years after Wolverine leaves the team he begins to kill and kidnapping other mutants under the command of Stryker, first killing Bolt at the carnival he's working at. He then "kills" Logan's girlfriend Kayla Silverfox in order to provoke him into accepting Styker's treatment so he can properly fight Victor. During the fight, Victor defeats Wolverine and crushes his bone claws, before leaving so Stryker could speak to him. Later on, Victor captures the teenage mutant Scott Summers, and killed Wraith before taking his DNA. He was confronted by Logan, but their conversation is interrupted by Gambit, who had managed to escape from Stryker's island previously.
Returning to the island, Victor witnesses Logan learning the truth that Kayla is alive, and watches him leave. Angered at Logan leaving, Victor confronts Stryker on their deal with merging his body with Adamantium, but William reveals that his body wouldn't survive the process. When Kayla attempted to tell Victor that Stryker was only using him, Creed attacked her before fighting his half-brother once again. Victor loses the battle, but returns to help his brother after being spared. In the end Wolverine and Sabretooth team up to take down Weapon XI aka Deadpool before leaving the island. Unbeknownst to Victor, Logan would lose his memory due to Stryker shooting him in the head with an Adamantium bullet, thus causing Wolverine to forget his relations to Creed.
X-Men[]
| “ | Scream for me. | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth to Storm |
While out on his own, Sabretooth became Magneto's right-hand and a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, however he doesn't have much to say and there's no back story. All he mostly does is growl at everyone, mostly at Toad. Sabretooth encountered Wolverine in Canada, attempting to kill him before being stopped by X-Men Cyclops and Storm. He and Wolverine had a fight on top of the Statue of Liberty. With the powers of Cyclops and Jean Grey they blasted Sabretooth through the Statue of Liberty and fell right through a security boat.
He is confirmed to have survived the fall, but has not made a live-action appearance since then. A possible explanation for his failure to properly recognize Wolverine is that he had become so feral by this point that he lost his memory, though since the "Origins" film was released after "X-Men", the writers probably hadn't thought of it yet.
X-Men: The Official Game[]
Sabretooth appears as a major antagonist in X-Men: The Official Game, where he still serves the Brotherhood under the leadership of Magneto.
A hologram version of Sabretooth is fought by Wolverine in the Danger Room and it is frozen by Iceman when it nearly defeats Logan. When the Sentinels are activated underneath the HYDRA base in Alkali Lake, Sabretooth and the Brotherhood work with the X-Men to fight against the machines in Hong Kong. During the mission, Magneto ordered Sabretooth to kidnap William Stryker's son Jason, and fails when Wolverine confronts him in the mastermold. He loses the fight against Wolverine, being pinned down during the destruction of the mastermold, but it's assumed that he survived.
Deadpool and Wolverine[]
At some point before 2029, Sabretooth was pruned by Time Variance Authority and sent to the Void, where he joined Cassandra Nova's crew along with other mutants and criminals. Sabretooth was then encountered by Deadpool and an alternate variant of Wolverine in the Void. As Wolverine and his Anchor Being's half-brother engages in a quick fight, he managed to decapitate him.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Sabretooth can regenerate from serious injuries that an ordinary human would not be able to recover from, as well as mortal wounds. His healing factor also protects him from direct fatal blows, such as bullets or being stabbed in the heart. Sabretooth's regenerative ability has some limitations, however, such as the inability to survive decapitation like Wolverine. He would also not be able to survive an Adamantium graft to his skeleton despite its healing factor. Since his physical transformation, it is unknown whether his healing factor has become more powerful or whether it has remained unchanged.
- Superhuman Strength: Sabretooth is much stronger than a human, capable of throwing a person his size over his shoulder and off the ground as Victor Creed. He was also stronger than his half-brother but after the implantation of Adamantium into Wolverine, he no longer seemed to match in terms of strength, losing their next two fights. However, Sabretooth became even stronger following his physical change, once again able to surpass Wolverine in combat.
- Superhuman Agility: Sabretooth is gifted with great agility that allows him to move and climb surfaces faster and more efficiently than ordinary people, even much more than Wolverine. He can notably move while running in a quadruped.
- Longevity: Thanks to his healing factor, Sabretooth aged relatively slowly, being over 160 years old but retaining a healthy, youthful physique.
- Feline Attribute: Sabretooth has sharp fangs and bone claw on the ends of his fingers, sharp enough to kill a human with a single facial laceration. He also has enhanced senses, including a powerful sense of smell equal to Wolverine's.
Quotes[]
| “ | Bradley: I'm not afraid of you, Victor. I'm not afraid of dying. Sabretooth: How do you know? You've never tried it before. |
„ |
| ~ Sabretooth intimidating Bradley before killing him. |
| “ | Why? You don't call. You don't write. How else am I supposed to get your attention? | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth after "Kayla's murder". |
| “ | You know, John, there's something I've always wanted to tell you... [Wraith teleports and starts to attack Sabretooth but is stabbed from behind.] You're predictable. Ooh. I can feel your spine, Johnny Boy. That's funny, never new you had one. | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth kills Wraith. |
| “ | Tell me something, Jimmy. Do you even know how to kill me? | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth mocking Wolverine's determination to kill him. |
| “ | Nobody kills you but me. | „ |
| ~ Sabretooth to Wolverine. |
| “ | I knew I smelled something rotten. | „ |
| ~ Hologram Sabretooth in X-Men: The Official Game. |
Trivia[]
- This incarnation is of Sabretooth is similar to Dog Logan, although, in the original comics, both he and Dog Logan are separate characters.
- Before Tyler Mane was cast as Sabretooth, WWE Wrestler Kevin Nash was offered the role of Sabretooth but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts.[1]
- Tyler Mane requested he reprise the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but he was turned down by the filmmakers who wanted a younger actor for the movie.[2]
- Gerard Butler and Karl Urban were both considered for the role before Liev Schreiber was cast.[3][4]
- Liev Schreiber was originally considered for the role of Colonel William Stryker, but he requested to take the role of Victor Creed, as he found that role more interesting.[5]
- Liev Schreiber was recommended by Hugh Jackman for the role of Sabretooth, describing him as having the necessary competitive streak to portray Sabretooth. During filming, they dared each other to perform more and more of their own stunts.
- Liev Schreiber described Sabretooth as the most monstrous role he has ever played.
- As a child, Liev Schreiber loved the Wolverine comics because of their unique "urban sensibility".
- Liev Schreiber was given a muscle suit to wear for his role as Victor Creed, similar to what Vinnie Jones wore as Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand, to make his physique look comparable to Hugh Jackman's two hundred twenty pound figure. The suit made Schreiber feel "humiliated", and he requested a chance to gain real muscle. He trained for three months while filming Defiance in Lithuania, and continued to train alongside Jackman during filming. Jackman also made Schreiber add a great deal of protein to his diet, which Schreiber called "the genocide of chickens." In the end, Schreiber gained forty pounds, and had to buy several new suits due to his back gaining several inches in width: "I can't fit into my favorite suit now. But I felt like I owed it to the genre to be big."
- Liev Schreiber had studied to be a fight choreographer, and wanted to be a dancer like Hugh Jackman, so he enjoyed developing and filming the Logan-Creed fights.
- Director Gavin Hood compared the relationship between Logan and Victor Creed to the tennis rivalry between players John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg: Victor hates Logan because he loves and needs his brother, but is too proud to admit he wants him back.
- There was an idea for Sabretooth to make a cameo in Logan, as well as a rumor of Liev Schreiber reprising the role once again. However none of it came to pass.
- X-24 in the 2017 movie Logan has a similar hairstyle and wears a similar dark overcoat to Sabretooth's in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
- In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Sabretooth is only referred to by his full name, never by his mutant nickname. Additionally, this is often used to differentiate the character in the two different eras due to Sabretooth's huge change in personality between his appearances.
- Although playing a younger Sabretooth, Liev Schreiber is only a year younger than Tyler Mane.
- In Deadpool & Wolverine, Sabretooth is the first villain to die in the Void.
- His appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine bears a striking resemblance to his Earth-10005 counterpart, possibly having come from that reality or its revised timeline.
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 Movies Villains
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Brotherhood of Mutants Department of Domestic Security and Defense Team X Omega Gang Hellfire Club Yashida Corporation Trask Industries Ashir En Sabah Nur/Horsemen of Apocalypse Essex Corp Others | ||
