Deadpool & Wolverine’s Wildest Cameo Is a Hilarious Reality Check for Marvel Fans

Thanks to the beauty of corporate mergers and industry deregulation, Deadpool is now officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But while you might assume that means Deadpool & Wolverine (the latest entry in the franchise and Marvel’s first R-rated superhero flick) would feature a smorgasbord of Avengers cameos, the movie is surprisingly restrained, instead focusing its stunt-casting budget on the genre’s pre-MCU history.

Fans already know that Dafne Keen reprises her role as X-23 from Logan, but that’s just one of many shocking cameos this movie has in store. Perhaps the most surprising — and arguably also the funniest — is a deep cut reference that even some diehard MCU fans might not get. So let’s explain why a certain superhero shows up in Deadpool & Wolverine, and what that has to say about one of the most beleaguered projects in Marvel movie history.

Warning: Huge spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine ahead.

Channing Tatum as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine

Still here? Great. So, as you hopefully already know, about halfway through the movie, Deadpool and Wolverine are rescued by a team of rejected superheroes that includes none other than Gambit of the X-Men. The big twist, however, is that he’s played by Channing Tatum, who puts on arguably the worst Cajun accent ever.

Alongside Gambit, the rest of this squad includes Wesley Snipes as Blade, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and Keen’s X-23. But while those other actors all played their characters in various non-MCU movies, Tatum is the exception. He’s never appeared on screen before as Gambit, let alone any superhero (unless you count the Lego movies where he voices Superman). However, the actor was publicly attached to plans for a Gambit movie for a very long time...

Channing Tatum’s failed Gambit movie

The history of Hollywood trying to put Gambit in a live-action X-Men movie dates all the way back to 2003, when X2: X-Men United director (and alleged terrible human being) Bryan Singer filmed a scene in which a stunt double briefly portrayed the Cajun superhero. But ultimately, that scene was cut from the film after Singer decided to save the character and cast a bigger star for the role in X-Men: The Last Stand — he reportedly had his eyes on Keanu Reeves.

However, Singer didn’t end up directing that movie. Initially, the team behind The Last Stand considered both Channing Tatum and Josh Holloway for the role, but ultimately decided to remove Gambit from an already-packed movie. (Considering how X3 turned out, this was probably for the best.)

Three years after The Last Stand, the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine finally brought Gambit to the big screen. 20th Century Fox actually tried to get Tatum for the role, but he was busy filming [*checks notes*] G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. So instead, the part went to Taylor Kitsch.

That was probably for the best, however, at least for Tatum. X-Men Origins was an infamous flop, which put an end to any plans for a Gambit spinoff (although it clearly wasn’t enough to put a stop to Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, who infamously appears in the film with his mouth sewn shut for... reasons.)

Four years after that, Tatum sparked rumors that a Gambit movie might finally, actually happen in an 2013 interview with /Film, referencing his own New Orleans heritage and his love for the “punk rock” Mutant. By 2014, 20th Century Fox was seriously moving forward with the film, which would be a standalone heist movie starring the Louisiana thief turned X-Men hero.

Unfortunately, this is the point in the story where Gambit truly entered development hell. The movie went through multiple directors including Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Carribean). Tatum also reportedly almost backed out after Fox tried to turn Gambit into a pillar of the X-Men franchise, which would have been a bigger commitment that the actor was willing to give. During that time the genre also shifted from heist movie to romantic comedy. So ultimately, it was a bit of a relief when, after acquiring Fox in 2019, Disney swiftly put the Gambit movie out of its misery.

That was seemingly the end of Channing Tatum’s unrealized Gambit movie — until now. But with the character now apparently part of the MCU, what does his future look like at Marvel Studios?

Will Marvel and Channing Tatum Make a Gambit Movie?

The short answer is: we have no idea. It’s unclear if this variant of Gambit even survives the film. We don’t see a dead body, but he does seemingly get devoured by the giant smokey void monster Alioth. Then again, this is the multiverse, so Marvel can pretty much do whatever it wants, whether that means bringing back Tatum’s take on the character or recasting Gambit instead.

We still know extremely little about the MCU’s plans for the X-Men moving forward, but the consensus seems to be that Marvel wants a clean slate with fresh actors (once Disney’s milked Hugh Jackman for every penny he’s worth, of course). So that probably means the next time we see Gambit in the MCU, he’ll look very different. But at the same time, we wouldn’t be shocked if Tatum showed up in Avengers: Secret Wars or some other future crossover event.

But the truth is, the fact that Channing Tatum got to show up in a Marvel movie as Gambit and do the worst accent ever feels more like a dig at all those years of development hell than a promise for the future. And considering what he went though, we can’t say we blame him wanting to get one last jab in before the X-Men franchise officially moves on.

Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now.