Following his long-overdue Marvel debut, Channing Tatum is setting high expectations for what’s to come in Avengers: Doomsday.
The actor, who played Gambit in last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, teased that fans are “just not ready for what’s about to happen” in the upcoming MCU movie, which sees a long roster of franchise stars also returning to save the world.
“I think they put a chip in me so that if I say something stupid, I would just start getting seizures,” joked Tatum on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I get to play my favorite character, Gambit… I was the kid in Pascagoula, Mississippi, who was throwing cards at friends in the living room. I always wanted to be an X-Man, so now to be in the Avengers, is beyond my wildest dreams.
“This movie, they have to supersede their expectations every single time. I was like, ‘How are they going to do it? How are they going to surpass the last thing they did?’ I read the script, and my first question after reading the script was, ‘How are you guys going to pull this story off?’ And you’re just not ready for what’s about to happen,” added Tatum.
Hugh Jackman, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, Dafne Keen, Ryan Reynolds and Jennifer Garner in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (2024)
Tatum was meant to play Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), but the character didn’t make it into the film. Due to a scheduling conflict for Tatum, Taylor Kitsch played Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which also featured Reynolds’ debut as Deadpool.
For the past decade, Tatum has been attached to a potential solo outing, which has bounced around among multiple directors.
Tatum’s surprise cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine also featured the returns of Chris Evans’ Human Torch, Wesley Snipes’ Blade and Jennifer Garner as Elektra, as well as Dafne Keen as X-23.
Also reprising their MCU roles for Avengers: Doomsday are Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom), Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Captain America), Vanessa Kirby (Susan Storm), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Florence Pugh (Yelena), Tenoch Huerta (Namor), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Thing), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Lewis Pullman (Sentry), Danny Ramirez (Falcon), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) Rebecca Romijn (Mystique) and James Marsden (Cyclops).