Channing Tatum turned an sudden scene-stealer when he appeared as Gambit in final yr’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The actor made a shock look because the fan-favorite Cajun mutant and did not disappoint. He is now set to reprise the function in subsequent yr’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” which is filming (and being written) as we communicate. However getting Tatum to conform to signal onto the film got here with an enormous situation: It needed to be okay along with his daughter.
In a deep dive interview with Selection largely targeted on his new film “Roofman,” Tatum was naturally requested about taking part in Gambit in “Doomsday,” which is being helmed by “Avengers: Infinity Battle” and “Avengers: Endgame” administrators Joe and Anthony Russo. However whereas the interview occurred within the U.S., “Doomsday” itself is being shot within the U.Ok. That was the primary main consideration for Tatum.
“My daughter’s right here. Marvel’s by no means going to shoot anyplace right here. Motion pictures by no means shoot in America,” Tatum stated. Certainly, Marvel Studios and most of Hollywood make the most of tax incentives from different international locations to assist offset the price of productions. Regardless of threats from the Trump administration to place tariffs on movies made exterior of the U.S., it stays a key element of the trade. Which means actors who dwell stateside have to depart their house for months when filming one thing as huge as an “Avengers” film.
So, as a result of it meant leaving her for an prolonged time frame, Tatum requested his daughter Everly if he ought to play Gambit in “Doomsday” earlier than he signed on. “I wasn’t certain if I needed to do ‘Avengers,’ as a result of I used to be going to must be gone, however I used to be like — it is okay. She’s going into center faculty now,” Tatum remarked. He additionally recalled the query he requested Everly to assist agency issues up:
“Did Daddy get to go to work? Or did he must go to work? These are two totally different sentences.”
Channing Tatum did not take returning as Gambit evenly
When the “Avengers: Doomsday” forged was introduced, a number of Marvel stars had been absent. Tatum’s Gambit wasn’t, and that is not insignificant. On the finish of the day, after speaking issues out along with his daughter, Tatum determined that this was a “attending to go to work” scenario, moderately than having to go to work. The mathematics checked out.
There are nonetheless questions on how Tatum’s heavy-accented Gambit can work in one thing extra critical like “Doomsday.” We’re speaking about Robert Downey Jr. taking up the function of Physician Doom in a massive-scale blockbuster with galaxy-sized stakes. However Tatum made it clear that the Russo brothers have that found out, saying that the administrators “need issues to be humorous, however they do not need to go full ‘Deadpool.’ They need to preserve the drama and preserve it tight. When Gambit will get critical — when he drops the Mardi Gras masks — issues do matter.”
Tatum tried to get a “Gambit” movie off the bottom for years as a part of the “X-Males” film franchise earlier than Disney bought Fox in 2019. Therefore, lastly attending to play the superhero is a little bit of a white whale for him. The actor hasn’t involved himself an excessive amount of with the Marvel Cinematic Universe of all of it, both, even with the franchise hitting one thing of a lull just lately (although “Deadpool & Wolverine” was an enormous spotlight). As he defined, he is purely targeted on Gambit:
“My singular focus was Gambit. He likes girls, he smokes, he drinks. He is not only a save-the-world sort of man — we’d like these, however we’d like distinction.”
“Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters on December 18, 2026.
