Channing Tatum would “kill kittens” to actually make his Gambit movie

It’s been a lifelong dream of Channing Tatum to play X-Men’s Gambit on screen, and as a guest star in Deadpool and Wolverine he finally got the chance. But many years after his solo film was canceled, he’s trying to use the momentum to revive the idea that he might still make that movie.

In Fallon, Tatum joked he would “kill kittens” to be in the film. “I would do a lot of horrible things to make that happen.” He also said he has spoken to Marvel. “(I’ve wanted) it for 10 years. It’s in the hands of Bob Iger and Kevin Feige. I pray to God. Write it into existence, friend.”

Tatum’s performance as Gambit and its significance may have escaped some fans because they don’t know the history of Tatum’s years of trying to get this film made. Gambit has only appeared in live-action once, played by Taylor Kitsch in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a singularly bad X-Men film, and his portrayal was far from comic book faithful.

In Deadpool and Wolverine, Tatum’s Gambit had some absolutely stellar fight scenes, and while his Cajun accent was the butt of jokes in the film, by most accounts it was pretty spot on.

Whether this will actually happen is complicated, if not quite unlikely, given the current state of the MCU.

1) This film is about the fate of Gambit, a character who was “born in the void” and never left it. Unlike Laura, he doesn’t seem to leave the void in the film either, although we don’t see him die. And if Laura survived, he probably did too.

2) But more importantly, we don’t know what Marvel has planned for the X-Men. They’re slowly moving toward that storyline with things like Kamala Khan having a mutant gene and the new Captain America movie where nations fight over a giant dead Celestial made of Adamantium. But as far as a “real” introduction of the X-Men, we just don’t know when that’s planned.

3) We also don’t know what form it will take. It’s one thing to introduce the X-Men, another to go for solo movies. Fox only did that with Jackman’s Wolverine, who was already a very well-known figure at the time. But they scrapped other ideas like a standalone Magneto movie.

However, Gambit certainly has a moment between his unforgettable appearance in X-Men ’97 and now Channing Tatum’s very funny version in Deadpool and Wolverine. I’m sure Hope that may happen, but Tatum may have to fight for another half a decade to get his solo film, if he makes it at all.

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