Channing Tatum’s Deadpool & Wolverine Appearance as Gambit, Explained

The following story contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is part action movie, part comedy, and part cameo machine. In addition to Hugh Jackman, who straps on the claws again for the first time since his character’s death in Logan, Deadpool & Wolverine reaches deep into superhero movie history to bring back some familiar faces.

Many of these faces have been spoiled by unofficial leaks and official trailers, straight from Marvel itself. Aaron Stanford is back as Pyro, now fully embracing the supervillain identity he only flirted with in X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. Dafne Keen returns as X-23, come to give Logan a pep talk. Even Jennifer Garner, from the dismal Daredevil and Elektra movies, drops by for a bit.

But there’s one cameo that few people saw coming and even fewer totally understand. When Deadpool and Wolverine make their way to the home base of resistance fighters deep within “The Void,” they find not just Elektra, X-23, and Wesley Snipes as an aged Blade (!).

Joining them is Channing Tatum as Gambit, the Cajun mutant with the power to turn anything (usually playing cards) into explosive projectiles. Tatum’s Gambit comes with comic book accurate details to blow the mind of any nerd, including a perfect recreation of the character’s absurd costume and an indecipherable Louisiana accent.

Every scene with Gambit gets a laugh, and he even has some cool fighting moments. But it does raise a question: why the heck is Tatum playing Gambit anyway? The answer to that question involves some inside jokes and forgotten Hollywood lore.

Who is Gambit?

Gambit made his debut towards the end of writer Chris Claremont’s legendary 17-year run, in 1990’s Uncanny X-Men #266. A shadowy thief full of charm and secrets, Gambit aka Remy LeBeau was an immediate hit with fans, especially once he paired with Southern Belle Rogue.

Gambit’s popularity only increased when he became a key member of the X-Men: The Animated Series cast, which resulted in him getting several solo miniseries from Marvel. Even though he’s never sustained a long-running solo ongoing, Gambit has been a major part of every X-Men story since. Writers have explored a long-teased subplot in which time-traveling mutant Bishop recognizes Gambit as a traitor, Apocalypse kills Remy and turns him into the horseman death, and most recently, Gambit fought alongside magical heroes in the series Excalibur and Knights of X. And, of course, his romance with Rogue provides tons of ongoing drama.

With so much fan excitement, it’s no surprise that 20th Century Fox, who held the film rights to the X-Men universe before Disney bought the company in 2019, would try to get a solo film in production. First, however, they wanted to introduce the character in a different solo spin-off, 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Wolverine encounters Gambit in New Orleans, where the Ragin’ Cajun is played by Taylor Kitsch. The former Friday Night Lights star was a popular pick to be a blockbuster leading man, as demonstrated by John Carter and Battleship. But in the same way that those two flicks were notorious flops, Kitsch’s take on Gambit in X-Men Origins disappointed everyone. So when it came time to seriously consider a solo Gambit movie, Fox went back to their first choice for the role, the guy they wanted before Kitsch.

Channing Tatum, the Gambit Who Never Was

Like Taylor Kitsch, dancer turned actor Channing Tatum was on a lot of leading man shortlists in the 2000s. With his natural charm and athletic dance skills, Tatum seemed to Fox like the ideal pick. But many other studios wanted him too, so when Fox finally sent him the offer to play Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tatum had to pass because he had already committed to play Duke in another 2009 film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Unlike Kitsch, however, Tatum’s star only continued to rise, despite misfires like Rise of Cobra. So when Fox decided to retool the character after X-Men Origins, Tatum seemed like an even better idea. And to Fox’s delight, Tatum was on board. In 2014, a Gambit movie starring Tatum went into production.

And that’s where it stayed. Fox certainly tried to wrangle some top-level talent to work on Gambit. At one time or another, Pirates of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, Rise of the Planet of the Apes filmmaker Rupert Wyatt, and Doug Liman of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow were attached to direct. Actors such as Léa Seydoux, Lizzy Caplan, and Lil Rel Howery all signed on to co-star. Tatum and the studio went through multiple treatments, ranging from heist plots to Southern gothic horror to romantic comedy.

Throughout the process, Tatum remained the film’s biggest supporter. In fact, X-Men producer and director of Dark Phoenix Simon Kinberg compared Tatum to Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, who took ownership over Wolverine and Deadpool and brought the characters to the screen. As late as 2019, Tatum even floated the idea of directing the movie himself.

But that’s as far as it got. Despite Tatum’s excitement and star power, despite fans clamoring for a Gambit solo film, despite even the multiple X-Men movies produced during this time, Gambit never again returned to the screen.

Deadpool & Wolverine Makes Gambit a Multiversal Joke

Despite his bad luck with Gambit, Tatum remains a likable screen presence and a welcome addition to any film, even if its only for a few minutes. Anyone who has seen The Hateful Eight, This is the End, or The Lego Movie knows that a Tatum cameo can be the funniest part of a film.

Tatum brings that same energy to his performance in Deadpool & Wolverine. The famously attractive actor allows himself to look ridiculous, squishing his face with Gambit’s strange headgear and hiding his physique under a garish purple costume. Tatum delivers his lines with a mush-mouthed patois, which makes him the butt of the joke in every scene.

Perhaps the funniest part of his Gambit is the way he relates to the other heroes lost in The Void. Where Blade and Elektra decide to fight Cassandra Nova as one more chance to do good, Gambit quips that his character “would have liked” to be a hero and this was his one sole chance.

As with Nicolas Cage appearing as his Superman Lives version of the Man of Steel in The Flash, Tatum’s Gambit is a deep in-joke for those who follow superhero movie productions. But unlike the awful Cage cameo, Tatum makes Gambit a proper character, full of genuine pathos and charm, even as he allows himself to look ridiculous.

With just a few lines and a handful of scenes shared with many other characters, Tatum doesn’t just make us laugh about the Gambit that never was—he makes us regret the film we never got to see.

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