Channing Tatum Reveals Marvel’s Canceled Gambit Movie Was Too Extreme For The MCU

Channing Tatum has wanted to play Gambit on the big screen for quite some time, and thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, it finally happened. Fans got to see Tatum finally make his Remy LeBeau debut alongside other Fox Marvel characters like Elektra and Blade, and now they will get to see him reprise the role in the much-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. At one point in time, there was a Gambit solo movie in active development, and Tatum recently revealed what that movie would have been and why it would never get made today due to being too extreme for the MCU.

In a new interview with Variety, Tatum was asked if he thought the Gambit movie could ever rise from the ashes. “Look…if we’d made our Fox version, that script would’ve never gotten made — ever. It was an R-rated romantic comedy. And when I say R-rated, I mean we went for it,” Tatum said. “We made Gambit the kind of character who could only exist in a movie with Deadpool. We had mutants having sex! It was wild — full-on. That’s something Marvel and Disney would never do.”

“You don’t always know what Disney will be, but you definitely know what it’s not going to be. It’s not gonna be horror. It’s not gonna be sex. But I think Marvel needs that kind of tonal diversity; something to balance the other side. Gambit’s a great opportunity for that. There’s so much you can do with him, and he’s slowly being built into the Marvel psyche. It’s fascinating, and I think one day they’ll figure it out,” Tatum said.

Channing Tatum’s Fox Gambit is Too Extreme for the MCU

With Tatum’s Gambit being designed as part of Deadpool’s world, it was always going to be challenging to bring the character over to the MCU without some changes. Gambit certainly had his share of envelope-pushing moments in Deadpool & Wolverine, but it was all relatively in the same ballpark as Deadpool.

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Granted, at one point in time, it was a far-fetched concept that Deadpool could be in the mix with other MCU characters, though that’s less of a concern after the billion-plus performance of Deadpool & Wolverine. Still, we haven’t seen Deadpool actually interact with many outside of his own bubble, and if we do, it won’t happen until Doomsday.

Gambit will actually be the testing ground to see how someone primarily featured in Deadpool’s world directly interacts with other MCU characters, as he will be mixing it up with other Fox X-Men but also likely some MCU favorites. If Gambit does show up, he will likely not be featured in any gratuitous sex scenes like in the original script, but given how Disney pushed the envelope with Deadpool & Wolverine, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some risqué and laugh-out-loud moments.

Doomsday and the subsequent Secret Wars will likely cherry-pick characters and concepts to bring into a new universe, and I’d be surprised to see Tatum’s version of the beloved X-Man not make the cut into that new universe, but only time will tell.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026.

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