*Spoilers, I guess?* If the cat wasn’t out of the bag, it sure was. So blame Ryan Reynolds for spoilers as he has confirmed every “Deadpool & Wolverine” came out there, including Channing Tatum as Gambit on his social media channels.
As many fans will know, Tatum was trying to make a name for himself as a Gambit for several years by playing the character for Marvel’s days at 20th Century Fox—hence the “Deadpool & Wolverine” cameo that facilitated this long-time dream.
But if you thought Tatum’s cameo as Gambit was a one-off, a way to fulfill the dream and move on, guess again; the actor is still totally committed to making a “Gambit” movie if Disney is interested.
Asked if he’ll ever reappear as the “Gambit” character again, Tatum told Variety, “I sure hope so. From your mouth to God’s ears. Write it into existence, my friend. Please.”
And quiried whether he would still be interested in starring in a “Gambit” movie, the actor enthusiastically said yes. “[Of] course I’ve said it. I’ve been saying I want it for the last ten years,” Tatum said. “It’s in Bob Iger and Kevin Feige’s hands. I pray to God.”
Marvel and Disney, are you listening?
Channing and his “Magic Mike” co-writer/producer Reid Carolin tried for several years to get a “Gambit” movie made during the days when 20th Century Fox-owned many key Marvel characters and hadn’t been bought by Disney. They went through nearly dozens of directors (Doug Liman, Gore Verbinski) and even pleaded with Fox to allow them (Tatum and Carolin) to direct it, but they never ended up getting a green light despite a finished script (the two co-directed 2019’s “Dog” instead; you could get more details on the original “Gambit” film via our Carolin interview).
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever,” but Reynolds “fought for me and Gambit,” Tatum recently said on his Instagram account, grateful to have gotten a shot at the character at least once.
“Gambit is a guy Chan was born to play. His story is similar to mine in that he spent a decade trying to put the most comic-accurate version of Gambit on the big screen,” Reynolds said on his social media channel when he confirmed the role two weeks after “Deadpool & Wolverine” had been in theaters. “Remy LeBeau is grafted to his soul and needs to come out and deal. And Gambit found his author in Chan. He’s one of the coolest, smartest characters in Comics and still largely unexplored. I want more — and from what I saw in theaters, you do too. Having the chance to say goodbye to some of these heroes is as important as having new characters to root for… and rooting for Gambit is easy.”
It’s been rumored that two characters Marvel wants to play with in their version of the “X-Men” are Gambit and Kitty Pryde, two characters that haven’t had a massive presence other than the “Deadpool & Wolverine” scenes, and some small parts in two “X-Men” films for Pryde. Will Feige go with Tatum? It’s hard to say as “X-Men” seem poised to likely go in a different direction after “Avengers: Secret Wars,” but Beast, Binary, and an alt version of the “X-Men” were teased at the end of “The Marvels” so it feels likely that those legacy characters will likely get their goodbyes in one or two of the next ‘Avengers’ films. Stay tuned.