There are a ton of great cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. The two best, I would argue, are the most surprising both because they were unexpected but also because they were more like co-starring roles and not just cameos. Those would be Channing Tatum, who showed up as the X-Man known as Gambit, and Wesley Snipes who reprised his role as Blade.
Both Tatum and Snipes had no reason to think they’d ever be invited to be part of Deadpool & Wolverine. In the case of Tatum, he had been working with Fox to star in a Gambit movie, and was even brought out to join the X-Men cast at San Diego Comic-Con, but the film never got off the ground. Tatum even thought about directing it himself at one point, that’s how desperate things got.
Tatum took to social media to express his appreciation at finally fulfilling his dream of playing Gambit, and the show his gratitude to Ryan Reynolds for making it happen…
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But he fought for me and Gambit. I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.”
Tatum continued, “All things happen for a reason. I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater. LFG!!”
Meanwhile, Snipes and Reynolds didn’t exactly get along when they worked together previously on Blade: Trinity. There was the whole thing where Snipes felt like he was getting pushed out of his own franchise, in favor of two white, relatively unknown actors in Reynolds and Jessica Biel. So when Reynolds suddenly came calling, he was curious, and certainly didn’t think it would be about a return as Blade…
“I did not think it was possible,” Snipes said (via EW). “I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think that Marvel was into it, Disney was into it — also because they had Mahershala cast for the next upcoming version of it.”
Snipes continued, “I thought it didn’t make sense to me, but [when] you get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue after 20 years, you go, ‘Okay, I got to take this call. Let’s see what this is about. He told me the idea… They said ‘yes’ and ‘it’s a go.’ ‘If you’re in, we’re in.’ Here we are.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now and you can see Snipes and Tatum in it, kicking ass. Or in the case of Tatum, kicking ass and making the ragin’ Cajun sound ridiculous. Kinda makes you glad the Gambit movie didn’t actually happen, right?
These pictures are almost 10 years apart to the day. I sat in the audience when Ryan Reynolds showed his first peek of Deadpool 1 to the world and I think I ran back stage right after and found him and I think I just hugged him and was like holy shit you did it man. It’s perfect.… pic.twitter.com/B5viY2f7nl
— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) July 30, 2024
