One Deadpool and Wolverine casting was nearly 20 years in the making, and it's left me dreaming of what could have been

Deadpool and Wolverine is undoubtedly one of the wildest Marvel movies in years. It's a madcap adventure through the multiverse, bringing with it a whole host of surprise reveals and fan service payoffs that are years in the making. But there's one Deadpool and Wolverine cameo that stands out perhaps more so than any other – bringing a dream project to life in a way that simply wasn't possible in the past.

It's worth noting that we are about to head into some pretty serious spoiler territory, so if you care about that sort of thing you may want to turn away now. If you're wondering whether you should go and see the film and discover this reveal for yourself, check out our Deadpool and Wolverine review to help make your decision. Otherwise, we're about to dive deep into the history of one of the greatest Marvel movies that never got made, and how Deadpool and Wolverine finally made it a (sort of) reality. 

Who does Channing Tatum play in Deadpool and Wolverine?

Amid a wild parade of surprise cameos that includes the previously revealed Laura, aka X-23 (Dafne Keen), Jennifer Garner back as Elektra, and Wesley Snipes reprising his role as Blade in Deadpool and Wolverine, none are wilder or weirder than Channing Tatum showing up as Gambit. The reason? It's not just yet another in a long line of stand-out cameos for Tatum… It's also a role he's been waiting nearly 20 years to play.

While the idea of introducing Gambit, the Rajun Cajun with a mutant power of kinetically charging up playing cards (among other things), was floated around Marvel's X-Men movies since 2003's X2, the character was first planned to be introduced in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand – and Tatum was even cast in the role. Unfortunately, Gambit was cut from the script; and when the character was going to be introduced again in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tatum was unavailable due to other commitments.

The role went to Taylor Kitsch, and at least at the time, it seemed like Tatum dodged a bullet there. X-Men Origins was a critical and fan failure, and Kitsch took a lot of knocks for his portrayal of Gambit, even from Tatum who gently criticized his lack of Cajun accent (we'll come back to that later).

Off of that failure, Tatum reentered the conversation around 2013, professing his continued interest in doing a Gambit solo movie, and X-Men producer Lauren Schuler Donner agreed, entering development with Tatum in 2014. In fact, the movie got shockingly close to going into production, with a script by Josh Zetumer, off a treatment by X-Men comic writing legend, and Gambit co-creator Chris Claremont. Fox announced a 2016 release date, and Tatum began meeting with directors… Who all turned him down.

Then, kismet! Rupert Wyatt signed on to direct and even began testing actresses for the female lead. Then, disaster! 10 weeks before filming, after the 2015 Fantastic Four movie imploded, Fox wanted to drastically cut the budget for the project. Wyatt disagreed, and he left.

Despite multiple push backs of the release date, and additional directors boarding and leaving the project from Doug Liman to Gore Verbinski, the Gambit movie never got closer than with Wyatt. Actresses were cast and left. Costume designers were hired. Scripts were rewritten, scrapped, and written again. For years Gambit hung in there, all the way up until 2019 – with Tatum at that point deciding to direct the movie himself – when Disney bought Fox, and shut the movie down, for good.

Does Gambit have a future in the MCU?

So, RIP Gambit, right? Wrong, as it turns out. Tatum does finally get to play Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, and while Deadpool is usually the one breaking the fourth wall in these movies, nearly every single line Tatum has is a direct joke about the wild development process laid out above. And if a line isn't about that development process, it's something said in an impenetrable Cajun accent that drives the guy who is usually the most annoying man in the room, Deadpool, out of his mind. While not explicitly stated, it seems pretty clear that Tatum delivering this realistic but impossible-to-understand dialogue is a direct reference to the time he called out Kitsch.

"I'm from New Orleans, around that area," Tatum said during a press event for White House Down, via Slashfilm. "My dad's from New Orleans, and I like to do a Cajun accent. I could do it for real. No knock on Taylor Kitsch, though, 'cause I actually like his Gambit, but I've always lived around Cajun people." Well, he did it for real, and it purposefully sucked. So… that's something.

Regardless, it's a sweet and laugh-out-loud hilarious culmination of 18 years of trying to get a Gambit movie off the floor for Tatum, and failing. Perhaps this stand-out appearance in Deadpool and Wolverine is the thing that will finally make the movie happen? I wouldn't get Tatum's hopes up, though. Instead, like Gambit says: laissez les bon temps rouler.

Wondering where to go next? Here's how to watch all of the Marvel movies in order once you're done with Deadpool and Wolverine.