Channing Tatum is still thinking about the one that got away: The Gambit movie
The actor says he can't watch Marvel movies anymore because he's still "so traumatized"
Channing Tatum spent years trying to get his Gambit movie off the ground. The actor, who isn’t exactly the person many fans envisioned to play the Cajun with kinetic powers, was set on proving naysayers wrong by starring in the movie. Tatum also co-wrote the screenplay with Reid Carolin.
He was so dead-set on making the Gambit movie happen that he even cut his hair like the character and, after failing to get a director to stick around for the project, threw his hat in the ring to direct it himself. But Tatum’s efforts were fruitless and years later, he still can’t let Gambit go.
In a new Variety profile, Tatum says the experience left him “so traumatized” that he hasn’t sat through any Marvel movies since. “I shut off my Marvel machine. I haven’t been able to see any of the movies. I loved that character. It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so ready to play him,” he admits.
He says 20th Century Fox “wanted anybody but us, essentially, because we had never directed anything.”
Tatum also passionately defends the character in the profile, with reporter Ramin Setoodeh pointing out that the actor speaks about Gambit like he’s a real person. “They would call him ‘flamboyant’ in his description,” Tatum says. “I wouldn’t—he was just the coolest person. He could pull anything off. Most superheroes, their outfits are utilitarian. Batman’s got his belt. Gambit’s like, ‘No, this shit’s just fly, bro! This shit walked down the Paris runway last year.’ He’s just wearing the stuff that’s so dope because he loves fashion.”
As for what Tatum’s version of Gambit would’ve been like, the actor explains it would’ve had a similar tone to Deadpool. “We wanted to make a romantic comedy superhero movie. The thesis was the only thing harder than saving the world is making a relationship work.”
Tatum says the production on the film was “on the one-yard line” with a cast, a production office, and a filming location. But, as Setoodeh explains, plans changed when Disney merged with Fox and acquired the rights to X-Men.
The actor is still hopeful that it’ll happen at some point—just not with him directing. “I think that was hubris on our part,” he admits.