While much of the blockbuster movie-going public waits with baited breath for each new Marvel movie, you won’t see Channing Tatum rushing out to see the next one, or any of them.
In a new interview with Variety, the 41-year-old actor explained his aversion to Marvel product. And it’s not that he doesn’t like Marvel’s ideas, they just didn’t like his.
For four years, the “Magic Mike” star and his longtime producer partner Reid Carolin tried to develop “Gambit,” a purportedly “raunchy” take on the X-Men mutant.
Twentieth Century Fox gave a go for the idea in 2016, and both Tatum and Carolin were angling to direct it. But as Tatum explained, producers had other ideas.
“The studio really didn’t want us to direct it,” Tatum told the outlet. “They wanted anybody but us, essentially, because we had never directed anything.”
A script was near completion, and it sounds like the starting gun was cocked and aimed. “We were right on the one-yard line,” Carolin said. “We had cast the film. We’d opened up a production office. We were on our way to shoot in New Orleans.”
Well, as happens in the Hollywood mill, the idea got bumped.
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As Yahoo Entertainment reported, when Disney merged with Fox in March 2019, “Gambit” became a casualty of the corporate takeover. “Disney had just gotten the ‘X-Men’ from Fox,” Carolin explained. “I think they needed to redesign the ‘X-Men’ from the ground up.”
Tatum still dotes on the “Gambit” idea to this day, so much so that he wants nothing to do with the MCU.
“Once ‘Gambit’ went away, I was so traumatized,” Tatum admitted. “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.”
One can understand the actor's dismay, as the Gambit idea does sound like a pretty funny, unique take on your standard superhero flick.
“They would call him ‘flamboyant’ in his description,” Tatum said. “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 s***’s just fly, bro! This s*** walked down the Paris runway last year.’ He’s just wearing the stuff that’s so dope because he loves fashion.”
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Somewhere along the lines of the ironic “Deadpool” franchise, Gambit would also lean into rom-com territory, according to Carolin. “We wanted to make a romantic comedy superhero movie,” he said. “The thesis was the only thing harder than saving the world is making a relationship work.”
Someday, if the idea grabs another studio head’s attention, Tatum will definitely be into revisiting it.
“Uh, yeah, I would love to play Gambit,” he said. “I don’t think we should direct it. I think that was hubris on our part.”
Tatum will next be seen in the upcoming comedy "Dog" and alongside Sandra Bullock in the romantic adventure film "The Lost City."
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