Channing Tatum says scrapped Gambit movie was like "losing a friend"

Channing Tatum has spoken about his scrapped Gambit movie – and how its cancelation has made him unable to watch any other Marvel movies.

In the Marvel comics, Gambit is one of the X-Men – a mutant with the ability to mentally create, control, and manipulate kinetic energy to his desire. The character has only appeared in one live-action movie, 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which he was played by Taylor Kitsch (Tatum wasn't available at the time). 

Tatum signed on to play the role in a standalone movie back in 2014. Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, and Gore Verbinski were all attached to direct at various points, with a release date eventually set for March 2020. However, after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, development was put on hold and the movie was finally shelved.

“Once Gambit went away, I was so traumatized, I shut off my Marvel machine," the actor told Variety. "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."

Variety described the project as "a raunchy stand-alone superhero movie about the X-Men" with a similar tone to Deadpool.

Meanwhile, Tatum's upcoming projects include The Lost City, co-starring Sandra Bullock and Daniel Radcliffe, and a re-team with Steven Soderbergh for Magic Mike 3.

However, he can next be seen in Dog, which he also co-directed – it arrives on the big screen on February 18. In the meantime, check out our list of the other major movie release dates to look forward to in 2022.