While Channing Tatum's MCU debut as Gambit was, to some extent, played for laughs in Deadpool & Wolverine, it was also a dream come true for the actor.
He was first attached to a Gambit movie back in 2014 and the project went through multiple scripts and directors before the plug was pulled as a result of the Disney/Fox merger. The Multiverse gave Tatum a second chance, though, and he embraced that with a comic-accurate take on the X-Man.
From his hair to the costume he wore and, crucially, that Cajun accent, Tatum gave it his all to do right by Gambit on screen.
As noted, that made him the butt of the joke in some scenes, with Deadpool at one point asking, "Who's your dialect coach? The Minions?" Asked whether he thinks Gambit's hard-to-decipher accent being a target in the movie was "fair criticism," Tatum responded, "'Fair' is an interesting word in that question. No, I don't think that's fair."
"That was [Ryan]. There was very little improv. But the Cajun dialect is a very particular one," the actor continued. "I grew up in Mississippi and my dad is from New Orleans. So it's one of those things that I grew up around it, but I've never done it."
"There are certain little isms that are very Cajun-y, but we actually intended it to be somewhat unintelligible. That was sort of the joke," Tatum added. "[Ryan would] come up to be and say, 'I don't want to know anything that you're saying on this [take], so I just dialled it all the way up. And then other ones he's like, 'All right, I've got to understand what you're saying now.'"
Elsewhere in the interview, the Deadpool & Wolverine star was asked if he somehow managed to take Gambit's comic-accurate costume home with him. "I was too scared to ask," he admits. "And usually, I steal the very last outfit that I'm in, in every movie, and I was too scared to do it on this one."
The threequel's post-credits scene strongly hinted that Gambit is alive and potentially still in The Void. Needless to say, we'd imagine Tatum will suit up again in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars.
You can hear more from Tatum on Deadpool & Wolverine in the player below.
Shawn Levy directs Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen, and Dafne Keen. The movie is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy.
Kevin Feige, Reynolds, Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D’Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey, Simon Kinberg and Jonathon Komack Martin serving as executive producers.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.