Channing Tatum is set to reprise his Deadpool and Wolverine role as Gambit in Avengers: Doomsday, but it sounds like the Ragin' Cajun will be taken a little more seriously when he makes his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Though he did get to flex his action muscles in an exciting set piece, Tatum largely played Remy Lebeau for laughs in the recent R-rated movie (Wade Wilson not being able to understand his thick accent was a running joke). However, the Magic Mike star has now revealed that he won't be going "full Cajun" for Doomsday.
During an interview with Variety, Tatum said that studio executives “really had to wrap their mind around the accent and how people are going to understand him.”
“I’m not gonna go full Cajun,” he added. “[Directors Anthony and Joe Russo] want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter.”
Spoilers follow.
We're still not sure how big a role Tatum will have in Doomsday, but the actor also revealed that he has a "big fight" scene with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom that was intense enough to cause an injury. Tatum is now said to be walking with a "pronounced limp," and is undergoing physical therapy before returning to finish shooting his scenes.
"Tatum was sidelined, sitting in for close-ups and allowing his double to take on the heavy stuff. Today, he says, he’s taken the day off his pain meds 'so I wouldn’t be falling asleep on you and drooling. My body doesn’t do well with codeine — and those painkillers the U.K. docs gave me were strong.'”
Finally, Tatum reveals that he auditioned to play Thor back in the day prior to Chris Hemsworth landing the role.
“I didn’t really want to be Thor,” he says. “But I wanted to audition in front of Kenneth Branagh. After I did one take, [Branagh] was like, ‘You’re not allowed to move. Put your hands on this chair.’ And I froze. He nailed my crutch. I spent the next five years really trying to learn stillness.”
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America