Deadpool & Wolverine gave Channing Tatum his long-awaited chance to play Gambit on the big screen. Now that the actor has had a taste of portraying the iconic X-Men character, it seems he’ll stop at nothing to finally get his Gambit solo movie greenlit at Marvel Studios. Tatum’s attachment to the character goes back over a decade. The actor has repeatedly told the press he’s wanted to play Gambit on screen since the start of his career. Tatum’s surprise appearance as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine was arguably the movie’s most shocking, and best moment, and the 21 Jump Street star wants the fun to continue in his own movie in the MCU.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Tatum reflected on his cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine and looked ahead to the character’s future. The actor became emotional after Fallon praised his performance in the movie, and then went on to describe the frankly terrible lengths he would go to so he could play Gambit again. It appears working on the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine with Ryan Reynolds may have gone to Tatum’s head, as the actor said:

“I would kill kittens to make [a Gambit movie]. I would do lots of terrible things to make that happen.”

Deadpool & Wolverine 3.5/5 A follow-up to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 films starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.Release Date July 26, 2024

Channing Tatum appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine sporting Gambit’s iconic purple suit, with his signature headpiece and flowing hair, with iteration of the character feeling like it was ripped straight from the pages of Marvel Comics. During the incredible fight scene in The Void — which also featured Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and Laura/X23 (Dafne Keen) — Tatum got to show off all of Gambit’s tricks, hurling energy-infused playing cards at his enemies and fighting with the character’s signature staff.

Channing Tatum Has Spoken With Kevin Feige About Gambit

During the conversation, Tatum revealed how deep his Gambit roots go. The actor said he fell in love with the character as a kid growing up in Mississippi, and would imitate the character’s iconic card tricks, hurling playing cards at his friends. But Tatum didn’t just develop his love for Gambit at a young age. Without realizing it, he’d already begun working on the character’s Cajun accent decades before he would bring the X-Man to life on the big screen. He said:

“I’ve been trying to, actively in the industry, play that character for the last 20 years. I was like, in third grade, throwing playing cards at my friends in the living room. My dad’s from New Orleans… And I grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi, so it was all around the Bayou in general. That culture that sound sort of marinates all around down there. We’d always read this book. It was called The Cajun Night Before Christmas. We would always play around reading it.”

Related Gambit Actor Channing Tatum in Conversations with Marvel Studios About Reviving Project Better get on that dialect coach search.

No official announcements have been made by Marvel Studios about Tatum returning to play Gambit in the future. However, some fans believe the character could make an appearance in Avengers: Secret Wars, which has already been confirmed to feature a shocking number of Marvel heroes. As for Gambit’s solo movie, Tatum still holds out hope, thanks to a conversation he had with Kevin Feige. The actor revealed:

“Kevin Feige, who runs Marvel, I love him so much. He literally was like, ‘Look, I love Gambit. I just don’t know how to do it right now. I don’t know how he fits into what we’re doing. And so I need to- I need to have a minute to figure it out.’ And now we’ve sort of cracked it a little bit.”

Deadpool & Wolverine
is currently screening in theaters.