One of the greatest surprises in Deadpool & Wolverine is Channing Tatum’s excellent performance as Gambit. It’s a cameo that shines above all the other cameos in a movie made up almost entirely of cameos. As the movie ends, it’s a shame that we have to say goodbye to Tatum’s portrayal just as we finally got it. Well, if Ryan Reynolds has anything to say about it, this won’t be the end of Tatum’s Gambit on the big screen.
While the movie suggests—but doesn’t actually show—that Gambit and a team of other cameo characters die near the end of Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds shared a deleted scene that confirms Gambit survives after the credits roll. In the short scene posted to X (formerly Twitter) on August 27, we see Tatum’s Gambit walk through the aftermath of a big battle and turn around toward the camera where we see a universe-hopping portal reflected in his eyes. These portals, dubbed Marvel Sparkle Circles by Deadpool, are the way characters traverse the cinematic multiverse, meaning that Gambit could make his way into the MCU proper. In a follow-up tweet Reynolds noted that a version of this scene can be seen in the movie on one of the TVA screens but that it was too small to notice the portal.
Gambit getting another chance would be a big win for fans and Tatum. If you don’t know, there is a lot of history and crushed dreams behind Tatum’s performance as Gambit. The actor was originally slated to appear as the beloved X-Men character way back in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand before being written out of the script. Later, when 2009’s X-Men: Origins: Wolverine was in production, Tatum was not available, so the role went to Taylor Kitsch. In May 2014, Tatum signed on to a Gambit standalone film but that movie was stuck in development hell before being officially canceled in 2019 after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox. Tatum clearly has a passion for the character, and that movie remains one of the biggest what-if projects in Marvel cinematic history that fans constantly wish could have seen the light of day. His appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine finally gave Tatum the chance to show off his take on the character, and it absolutely rocks.
The hope of this deleted scene is that Deadpool & Wolverine won’t be the end of Tatum’s tenure as Gambit, and that he could find his way into the larger MCU. With the appearance of the X-Men in the MCU only being a matter of time, it would make a lot of fans happy if Tatum could be part of that.
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