Spoilers for “Deadpool and Wolverine” ahead.
“Deadpool and Wolverine” is finally upon us (you can read our review right here), and like most Marvel Cinematic Universe films these days, it’s filled with fun, surprising cameos. Some of these cameos were long rumored before the film’s release, and some are big surprises. Throughout the film, several guest stars appear to team up with Deadpool and Wolverine.
These include Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Blade (Wesley Snipes), X-23 (Dafne Keen) and Gambit (Channing Tatum). Elektra, Blade and X-23 are all returning characters from previous films, with the actors who originally played them reprising their roles. But Gambit is a bit of a wild card. While Gambit did appear in the terrific film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the character was played by Taylor Kitsch in that movie, not Tatum. But as it turns out, Tatum was very close to playing Gambit in his own movie.
Sadly, like many other titles announced during the superhero movie boom, “Gambit” never made it to the big screen — but not for lack of trying. “Deadpool and Wolverine” gave Tatum the chance to finally play the character he’s wanted to play for years, but some viewers may not even realize a Gambit movie starring Tatum ever got made. Here’s what happened.
Gambit: Origins
Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee, Gambit first appeared in the pages of the comic “The Uncanny X-Men Annual.” The character gained more popularity when he appeared in “X-Men: The Animated Series.” A Cajun from New Orleans, Gambit has the power to super-charge objects with kinetic energy. He uses playing cards for this – charging playing cards with explosive energy and throwing them at enemies. It was only a matter of time before Gambit made the jump to the big screen, and this happened in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where Taylor Kitsch played the character.
As it turned out, Kitsch was not the first choice for the role. Instead, Channing Tatum was in the running for the role, but Kitsch was ultimately cast because Tatum had a busy schedule (he was filming the 2009 film “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”). However, the role of Gambit never left Tatum’s mind. In 2013, Tatum revealed that he would very much like to play the role, saying: “I would love to play Gambit. Gambit is my favorite. I’m from New Orleans, around that area. My dad is from New Orleans, and I love doing a Cajun accent. I could really do it.”
Luckily, Fox was in the process of planning their own “Gambit” spin-off movie, and by 2015, Tatum was officially signed on to play the role in an independent film.
Gambit Movie Problems
Unfortunately, the “Gambit” movie hasn’t had it easy. As the title evolved, various directors signed on for the project or were at least considered, including Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, Gore Verbinski and even Edgar Wright. Despite this ever-changing list of filmmakers, Tatum stayed with the film, and it continued to change shape year after year. By 2017, following the success of both “Logan” and “Deadpool,” the film was in the process of being reworked. “We had a first draft [that] It was good, but we were in a creative phase at that point. [the X-Men]”That changed somewhat when these movies came out, the X-Men movies and the superhero movies with Logan and Deadpool broke down a lot of doors for us,” Tatum said at the time. “We were trying to do some things that we weren’t really allowed to do, and they just broke down the doors, and now we’re rethinking it a little bit.”
And what will be the film’s new direction? As it turns out, one of the plans was to make “Gambit” something like a romantic comedy. However, this may have contributed to the project’s eventual downfall. At one point, Léa Seydoux was cast in the film, and she later confirmed that there was an effort behind the scenes to make the film more comedic, saying, “The script was really good. There were some funny parts, but they wanted to make it more comedic.”
Fox kept pushing the film’s release date back and forth, but it seemed like there was no end to it. And yet, Tatum stuck with the film. He said In fact wanted to play Gambit. And after one director after another left the project, Tatum finally suggested that he should direct the film himself along with his production partner Reid Carolin. Sadly, the “Gambit” film was ruined.
Gambit movie canceled after Fox-Disney deal, but…
In 2017, it was revealed that Disney was buying Fox. The deal was completed in 2019, and at the time, the future of Fox’s Marvel-related titles was in question. In February of 2019, news broke that Fox’s Marvel titles were in development”on hold.” Finally, by May of 2019, it became official: “Gambit” was deadTatum did not take this news well. “When ‘Gambit’ was gone, I was in a state of shock,” Tatum said. Diversity”I turned off my Marvel machine. I haven’t been able to watch any of the movies. I loved that character so much. It was very sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so set on playing him.”
In the same interview, Tatum reaffirmed that he would still like to play the character, but it really seems like he’ll never get the chance.
Thankfully for Tatum, “Deadpool and Wolverine” changed that. The actor finally got the chance to play Gambit on the big screen, albeit in a sort of comic relief fashion (there’s a lot of fun to be had at the expense of the Cajun accent Tatum uses in the movie). Would Tatum’s stand-alone “Gambit” movie have been any good? We may never know for sure, but at least the actor finally got the chance to play the role he’s been hoping for for years.
