This story contains spoilers from Deadpool & Wolverine.
I can’t quite put Deadpool & Wolverine in the upper echelon of my Marvel Cinematic Universe rankings. The superhero romp is mostly what we expect from MCU movies today: multiverse shenanigans, plots that hurt my brain, and dozens of celebrity cameos. This time, Deadpool just turns to the camera and jokes, “Yeah, I’ve got Disney money now!” Then a once-forgotten Marvel character makes a grand reappearance. But one specific cameo had me laughing uncontrollably: Channing Tatum as Gambit.
The Magic Mike star stands out among the flurry of cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine, because he’s from a movie that was never made. It’s very insider baseball, but the X-Men role is something that Tatum has sought for nearly twenty years. Seeing the man finally play Gambit here—and for laughs!—is a damn good thing.
Boasting the superhero’s indistinguishable Cajun accent, the actor—who grew up in the South himself—absolutely steals the film. He appears standing next to, in unbelievable cameos, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Wesley Snipes’s Blade. Honestly, it couldn’t matter any less what else was going on in the film, because my eyes (and ears, as best as they could) were glued on Gambit, with his linguistic gumbo. It sounds like Tatum’s mouth is (intentionally) full of marbles—something you have to hear to believe. The syntax is all garbled, and he even throws some random French words in the mix for good measure. But not understanding him is the joke, and so is knowing why. Let’s visit superheroes past, shall we?
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Channing Tatum Was Originally Cast as Gambit in 2006
Roughly eighteen years ago, the character was set to appear in X-Men: The Last Stand. Tatum was cast in the role opposite Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The Ragin’ Cajun was eventually scrapped from the script, however, as the filmmakers struggled to find a way to introduce a mutant with the power to throw energy-enhanced playing cards.
When Gambit appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine three years later, Tatum couldn’t join the project due to other commitments. Taylor Kitsch (Battleship) got the role—without the accent—and his performance was heavily mocked by fans and critics alike. Ironically, Origins also starred Jackman as Wolverine and Reynolds in his first crack as Deadpool.
Though Tatum may have dodged a bullet with X-Men Origins, he re-entered the conversation in 2013 when he professed that he still wanted to play Gambit. “Gambit’s my favorite,” he told /Film at the time. “My dad’s from New Orleans, and I like to do a Cajun accent. I could do it for real. No knock on Taylor Kitsch, though, ’cause I actually like his Gambit, but I’ve always lived around Cajun people.”
Fox tried its best to get Tatum a solo movie. X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner became involved, and Patriots Day screenwriter Josh Zetumer started working on a treatment from the character’s co-creator, Chris Claremont. Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) signed on to direct. Fox set a 2016 release date, and the team started testing for Tatum’s female costar.
What Happened to Tatum’s Gambit Film?
Despite a solid start, Gambit entered development hell in 2014. Part of the blame lies with 2015’s The Fantastic Four, starring Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan. Before the reboot became a critical failure worthy of disownment from director Josh Trank, the project went through several rewrites and reshoots. Fox reportedly wanted to cut the budget back on Gambit, so Wyatt left the film. Multiple directors replaced him, including Doug Liman (Road House) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean), but the project never saw any momentum. Eventually, Tatum pitched the idea of directing the film himself.
But when Disney acquired Fox Studios in 2019, Gambit was dead in the water. Disney officially canceled production on the film, along with several of Fox’s Marvel movies that were in the works. “We were right on the one-yard line,” Tatum told Variety in 2022. “We had cast the film. We’d opened up a production office. We were on our way to shoot in New Orleans.” After the project was canceled, he was left “traumatized.” Tatum swore off watching The Avengers and put his Marvel plans aside. “I loved that character,” he said. “It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend, because I was so ready to play him.”
With any luck, Tatum’s appearance as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine will bring the actor a little closure. Or who knows? Maybe the cameo will kick-start a whole new campaign for the Gambit movie after all.
