Channing Tatum Thought He Lost Gambit Forever Before Deadpool & Wolverine

Did you remember that Channing Tatum nearly played Gambit in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand"? The actor has been vocally interested in the Cajun mutant character for a long time, and I vaguely recalled that he missed out on being cast in the part in 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" due to a scheduling conflict with his starring role in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," but I never knew that years before that, he came close to playing Gambit in "X-Men 3" before that character was ultimately written out of that movie.

All this to say, Channing Tatum has had Gambit on the brain for close to 20 years, and after seemingly dozens of starts and stops developing a solo movie in which he would star as the card-throwing thief with a heart of gold, he finally managed to play the part in a much-discussed cameo in "Deadpool & Wolverine." Of course, if you've been reading sites like /Film for a while, you'll recall that Tatum was hired to star in a Gambit film back in 2014, and that project spent the next five years in various stages of development, attaching and subsequently losing directors like Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, and Gore Verbinski before the plug was pulled after Disney acquired most of 20th Century Fox's assets in 2019. 

But all those years of Tatum learning how to throw cards and do sleight of hand while preparing to play the role actually paid off; it seems that he's one of the most loved aspects of the newest Marvel Studios movie. The power of the moment hasn't escaped him, either — in a recent tweet, Tatum says he "thought he lost Gambit forever" and effusively thanked the people who helped make this cameo happen.

"These pictures are almost 10 years apart to the day," Tatum tweeted, sharing photos of himself and his now-co-star Ryan Reynolds at San Diego Comic-Con. "I sat in the audience when Ryan Reynolds showed his first peek of Deadpool 1 to the world and I think I ran back stage right after and found him and I think I just hugged him and was like holy [s***] you did it man. It's perfect. I didn't know him really at all back then. But since then I can say that there is almost no one that has had my back in this industry more than [Reynolds]. I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But he fought for me and Gambit. I will owe him probably forever. Cause I'm not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy. [Director Shawn Levy] as well. Truly such a brilliant creator on every single level. All things happen for a reason. I'm so grateful to be in this movie. It's a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater. LFG!! #deadpoolandwolverine"

It seems like the possibility of a solo Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum is no longer viable, since the character was essentially played as a joke in "Deadpool & Wolverine" with his over-the-top and occasionally incomprehensible Cajun accent. It would be extremely difficult to ask audiences to invest in that portrayal in a serious way after that, but who knows? Stranger things have happened in comic book movies before. What seems more likely to me is that Tatum could pop up in a very small role in "Avengers: Secret Wars," which is being set up as the new culmination of the post-"Endgame" Marvel Cinematic Universe. We'll find out for sure in May 2027.