Channing Tatum has revealed he suffered a leg injury during the production of Avengers: Doomsday that forced his stand-in to take over performing multiple stunts.
The 45-year-old actor will reprise the role of X-Men hero Gambit in Marvel’s upcoming superhero epic. He previously played the character in last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
Tatum told Variety that the injury to his leg left him sidelined, shooting only close-ups while a double performed more elaborate scenes. “We had tons more shooting,” the actor recalled, including a “big fight” with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
For the interview, which Tatum attended with a heavy limp, the actor said he had stopped taking his pain medication “so I wouldn’t be falling asleep on you and drooling. My body doesn’t do well with codeine — and those painkillers the U.K. docs gave me were strong.”
He is set to attend intensive physical therapy to aid his recovery as production continues, and reflected: “It’s not about the pain I feel in the moment. It’s knowing I can’t take this back. And now I know what the next six months of my life will be like.”
Prior to Deadpool & Wolverine, Tatum spent several years developing a standalone Gambit film for 20th Century Fox, but the project fell through when Disney and Fox merged in 2019. In the new interview, Tatum said he was glad the film didn’t come to fruition as he wasn’t ready to co-direct with producing partner Reid Carolin.
“The universe just saved us,” said Tatum. “We would have failed so hard.”
The actor declined to comment on whether the Marvel Cinematic Universe is past its peak, saying: “My singular focus was Gambit. He likes women, he smokes, he drinks. He’s not just a save-the-world kind of guy — we need those, but we need contrast.”
He also revealed that the Gambit character will be modified for Avengers: Doomsday, after the running joke in Deadpool & Wolverine that nobody could understand him due to his heavy Cajun accent.
Marvel executives, said Tatum, “really had to wrap their mind around the accent and how people are going to understand him.” He responded: “I’m not gonna go full Cajun.”
Tatum added that Avengers: Doomsday directors Anthony and Joe Russo “want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter.”
