Channing Tatum’s Gambit is one of the most crowd-pleasing cameos in box office juggernaut “Deadpool & Wolverine.” After being announced as the new Gambit at 2015’s San Diego Comic-Con, Tatum would never actually star as the Cajun thief in the promised “X-Men: Origins” film, which became trapped in the Hollywood equivalent of the Void: development hell. For fans of the character, this felt like a particularly disappointing development as Tatum seemed perfect for the role, in a way that could finally bring the character some well-deserved mainstream recognition. Alas, it wasn’t to be — until “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Of the many, many cameos in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Tatum’s Gambit is surely one of the most delightful, not only because it finally gives fans a glimpse at what could have been, but also because of a running joke about Gambit’s accent. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee, the character famously hails from New Orleans and speaks Cajun English as well as Louisiana French. In the 127-minute quip-fest that is “Deadpool & Wolverine,” this is, unsurprisingly, played for laughs, with Gambit’s Cajun lilt making for a mostly incomprehensible speech pattern that frequently irks Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson. It’s a neat little addition to a movie already brimming with one-liners and Reynolds’ irreverent comedy. But it turns out there was more to this seemingly minor gag than you might think.
Ryan Reynolds’ plan for Gambit’s accent
In “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Channing Tatum’s Gambit is one of many Marvel characters to wander the no man’s land that is the Void — essentially a dumping ground for elements of the MCU and the former 20th Century Fox Marvel universe that are no longer needed or, as in Gambit’s case, were never used in the first place. Sporting a costume that’s a little too faithful to Gambit’s “X-Men: The Animated Series” getup, the Cajun hero unites with Deadpool, Wolverine, Blade, X-23, and Elektra to take on Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova — but not before he and Deadpool set up their ongoing back-and-forth.
The frankly ridiculous-looking Tatum speaks in such a thick Cajun accent that not only could Dafne Keen not stop laughing, Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with the Mouth can’t understand a word, and delights in making fun of his newfound cohort. But it seems Ryan Reynolds actually had a plan for this running gag that went beyond, “Just talk funny.”
Access Hollywood spoke to Tatum about his “Deadpool & Wolverine” cameo, where he revealed that there was “very little improv” on set. He explained that his upbringing in Mississippi and the fact his father is from New Orleans actually informed his performance, adding, “The Cajun dialect is a very particular one […] it’s one of those things that I grew up around, but I’ve never done it.” In “Deadpool & Wolverine,” though, he very much does it, but not without some direction from Reynolds. Tatum explained:
“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. [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 dialed it all the way up. And then other ones he’s like, ‘All right, I’ve got to understand what you’re saying now.'”
Will we see more of Channing Tatum’s Gambit?
It’s no secret that the “Deadpool” franchise is somewhat of a passion project for Ryan Reynolds, who inhabits the character in the way that Robert Downey Jr. did Iron Man, or indeed Hugh Jackman does Wolverine/Logan. As such, the man who refuses to allow me to enjoy YouTube uninterrupted until I sign up for Mint Mobile might seem as though he’s going into these “Deadpool” movies with a cavalier irreverence, but there’s a lot of planning that goes into making the films just the right amount of vulgar to remain appealing to the masses. For example, Reynolds decided to cut a joke about Wesley Snipes’ Blade from “Deadpool & Wolverine” and, as editor Shane Reid put it, proved he has a lot of “restraint” when required. Reid also told iO9 that Reynolds knows “when to not give something that feels like it’s overindulgent.”
That certainly seems to be the case with Channing Tatum’s Gambit. Had every line been incoherent, the joke would have worn thin almost immediately, but once again Reynolds displayed an incongruous restraint in advising his colleague on when to dial it up and when not to.
All of which led to one of the best guest appearances in the film. In the wake of “Deadpool & Wolverine” obliterating the box office, there has been talk of a possible Tatum-led Gambit solo movie finally coming to fruition. Whether that will happen or not does, of course, remain unclear for now. But Reynolds did take to Twitter/X to post a clip proving Tatum’s Gambit survived the melee in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” and also appears to show the character encountering a Doctor Strange ring portal, or what Reynolds referred to as a “Marvel Sparkle Circle.” This essentially amounts to Tatum’s Gambit being offered the opportunity for an official introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — though as Reynolds points out, this clip was only used in the film “on one of the monitors in the deep background of the TVA,” so we’ll have to wait to see if Marvel Studios actually follows through on the tease.
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