Channing Tatum says Gambit would have been a Deadpool-esque 'romantic-comedy superhero movie'

One of the most anticipated superhero movies that might have been was Channing Tatum's Gambit. The Magic Mike and Dog star had been cast as the card-slinging X-Men member in a standalone film set at 20th Century Fox in 2014. But the project landed in development hell, and after Disney's purchase of Fox properties essentially squashed the X-flicks as we knew them, it never came to fruition.

Tatum opens up about why the film failed to see the light of day and his past hopes to make a Deadpool-esque "romantic-comedy superhero movie" in a new interview with Variety.

"The thesis was the only thing harder than saving the world is making a relationship work," the actor says of the planned R-rated project.

Gambit, a mutant who can turn essentially anything into explosives by manipulating kinetic energy, first appeared in a live-action adaptation in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with actor Taylor Kitsch playing him — but that film has been deemed one of the worst of the franchise. Ryan Reynolds, who first showed up in the movie as Deadpool, even made fun of it later in his own Deadpool blockbusters.

Tatum had long been linked to the role after Wolverine, and says he originally wanted to share co-directing duties for Gambit with his producing partner Reid Carolin, but the studio "wanted anybody but us, essentially, because we had never directed anything."

Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) were some of the filmmakers who fluttered in and out of the project.

Carolin tells Variety they were so close to actually shooting the project that they even "cast the film." Then, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox properties and plans really fell apart.

Tatum felt "traumatized" after Gambit was dropped from the slate. "I shut off my Marvel machine," he says. "I haven't been able to see any of the movies. I loved that character. It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so ready to play him."

For what it's worth, Tatum will star in the upcoming action rom-com The Lost City — which isn't Gambit, but it's not nothing.

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