Deadpool & Wolverine Director Almost Made Channing Tatum's Gambit Movie

"I was one of 25 different directors who met with Channing about directing the Fox Gambit movie, and yet it never quite happened."

By Cameron Bonomolo

"You know how long I been waiting for this?" remarks Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, a meta-reference to Channing Tatum's decade-long journey to play the X-Men's card-carrying mutant on the big screen. The actor, who also made a cameo in Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy's 2021 movie Free Guy, spent years developing a Gambit movie at 20th Century Fox with producing partner Reid Carolin and X-Men franchise producer Simon Kinberg. Development was far enough along that Fox officially announced the project with a title treatment during a 2015 San Diego Comic-Con panel.

That's where the studio premiered the first footage from the R-rated Deadpool, part of a slate that included Fant4stic, 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, and 2017's Logan. And then, after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox's film and television assets, it looked like Gambit just wasn't in the cards. "All of the movies at Fox are being evaluated," Kinberg, the film's screenwriter, said at the time. "I love the idea of Channing playing Gambit. I think we have a great script for it and I think it's a role he was born to play. It's a character I grew up loving and I know the fans love. So I suspect, I hope it will happen."

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Nine years later, Reynolds and Levy — along with Tatum and Kinberg — finally brought the Ragin' Cajun to theaters in Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine. The Levy-directed threequel not only served as a showcase for the character who was on deck to debut in his ultimately unmade X-Men spinoff, but it brought back long-retired Marvel legacy characters like the Human Torch (Chris Evans), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and Blade (Wesley Snipes).

"I am obsessed with Channing as Gambit in this movie. What went into this, first and foremost, is a decade of Channing wanting to play this part and a decade of Channing almost playing this part at Fox," Levy told Variety. "I know this personally because back in those years, I was one of 25 different directors who met with Channing about directing the Fox Gambit movie, and yet it never quite happened. So when we decided to have Gambit in this movie, we knew it would be deeply gratifying for Channing."

Levy helmed a number of films for Fox — Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), Date Night (2010), The Internship (2013), Free Guy (2021), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006-2014) — making him a sensible pick for Tatum's long-stalled passion project that cycled through talent like Gore Verbinski (the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity).

The Magic Mike actor "added a lot of Cajun and French flavor" to Remy LeBeau, a New Orleans native who introduces himself as "le diable blanc" ("the white devil") in a nod to a moniker borrowed from the comic books. "We absolutely loved it," Levy added of Tatum's Cajun-accented X-Man.

Tatum has since taken to social media to thank Levy for his inclusion in Deadpool & Wolverine, praising the director as "truly such a brilliant creator on every single level."

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"I thought I had lost Gambit forever," Tatum continued, but Reynolds "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." Reynolds shared his own post celebrating Tatum as Gambit, calling Tatum "one of the greatest, hardest working, kindest people in this entire industry."

"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 wrote on Instagram."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." Reynolds added he "couldn't be more thrilled to see @channingtatum pull Gambit from the dead and bring him to life at the perfect time and perfect way."

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