Channing Tatum has finally gotten to break his silence about his Gambit cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine in a touching social media post.
Star of upcoming thriller Blink Twice, Channing Tatum, finally got his chance to play the X-Men‘s ragin’ cajun, Gambit, in Deadpool & Wolverine. The cameo is the conclusion of a 15-year-long journey for both the actor and the character, and Tatum was notably emotional about the role in a post on X.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But [Ryan Reynolds] fought for me and Gambit,” Tatum says in the post. “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.”
These pictures are almost 10 years apart to the day. 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 shit you did it man. It’s perfect.… pic.twitter.com/B5viY2f7nl
— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) July 30, 2024
Tatum’s first connection with Gambit came in 2009 when he was in the running to play the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was also meant to originally introduce Deadpool. Though he was unable to play the role at the time (with Gambit instead being portrayed by Taylor Kitsch), Tatum campaigned for years to play Gambit in a future project.
A solo Gambit film starring Tatum almost took off in 2015, with plans for a debut in the then-upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. Multiple directors would be attached over the years, including Tatum himself, but the film was finally axed in 2019 following the Disney buyout of 20th Century Fox.
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Despite the talent behind it and the clear passion of its star, the Gambit project was largely a joke among fans. The character’s sole appearance in X-Men Origins left a sour taste in viewers’ mouths, and the overall declining quality of X-Men films didn’t inspire a lot of hope.
It says a lot that Gambit’s cancellation wound up leading to Deadpool & Wolverine’s best moment, with Tatum’s passion and Reynold’s savvy for utilizing lesser-known X-Men characters on display. It seems unlikely we’ll ever see Tatum’s solo Gambit film at this point, but it is a sweet bullet point that he not only got to play him but that his appearance seems universally beloved.
If you’re looking for more Deadpool & Wolverine, check out our Deadpool 3 ending explainer, or find all the Easter eggs in the movie with us. You can also read about Deadpool & Wolverine’s jaw-dropping box office, and look ahead to upcoming Marvel movies like Avengers Doomsday.