Back in the days when 20th Century Fox was still around and running the X-Men film series, there was a five-year stretch where the studio was developing a Gambit movie. Channing Tatum would have starred as the titular Ragin’ Cajun, but the project was shelved once Disney acquired Fox in 2019. However, it sounds like Gambit still would have faced an uphill battle being made even had Fox stayed a separate studio, as Tatum went over just how R-rated this X-Men spinoff would have been.
Despite Gambit not working out, Tatum was finally able to play Remy LeBeau last year in Deadpool & Wolverine, and he’ll reprise the role in December 2026 for Avengers: Doomsday. While discussing his 2025 movie movieRoofman, which is now playing in theaters, the actor was asked by Variety about if there’s now a chance that the Gambit movie could be revived at Marvel Studios, he smirked and said:
Look…if we’d made our Fox version, that script would’ve never gotten made — ever. It was an R-rated romantic comedy. And when I say R-rated, I mean we went for it. We made Gambit the kind of character who could only exist in a movie with Deadpool. We had mutants having sex! It was wild — full-on.
Considering the kinds of things that were shown in the first two Deadpool movies and Logan, I find it hard to believe that Gambit would have been too much for the suits at 20th Century Fox to greenlight. Remember, there’s a scene in Deadpool where Wade Wilson is getting pegged by Vanessa! So what specifically is in that Gambit script that Channing Tatum believes would have been going too far even by R-rated standards? What sort of debauchery was our favorite card-carrying mutant getting into?
Whatever those answers are, Channing Tatum is certain that Disney and Marvel Studios won’t revive Gambit, even despite the fact that Deadpool & Wolverine was the MCU’s first R-rated movie. In his opinion, though, they’re missing out putting Gambit the character to use in this more adult fashion, saying:
That’s something Marvel and Disney would never do. You don’t always know what Disney will be, but you definitely know what it’s not going to be. It’s not gonna be horror. It’s not gonna be sex. But I think Marvel needs that kind of tonal diversity; something to balance the other side. Gambit’s a great opportunity for that. There’s so much you can do with him, and he’s slowly being built into the Marvel psyche. It’s fascinating, and I think one day they’ll figure it out.
Until that day comes, Gambit’s next MCU appearance will be within PG-13 confines. Six actors from the original X-Men film series will join Channing Tatum in Avengers: Doomsday: Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler and James Marsden as Cyclops. These characters will join forces with the Avengers, New Avengers, Fantastic Four and other heroes to battle Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18, 2026, but you can revisit Channing Tatum’s sole Gambit appearance thus far by streaming Deadpool & Wolverine with a Disney+ subscription. There’s also the Jake Schreier-directed X-Men reboot to look forward to, and hopefully there’s a way to squeeze Gambit into that story.
