The Career Loss That Left Channing Tatum Absolutely Devastated

Channing Tatum is considered one of the most successful actors of our generation. But unlike other actors, his road to stardom has been quite unconventional. After his short stint as a collegiate football player, he quit and set his sights on Hollywood. He didn't go to acting school like others, however, nor did he appear in a lot of small roles before his career took off. Instead, Tatum explored a career in stripping.

"It's absolutely true," Tatum told Vanity Fair in June 2013. "I did it for almost a year. I've lived a crazy life, for sure. It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time and I got out unscathed. It's nothing I'm ashamed of and I'm not proud of it either." But being a stripper led to some of his most prominent roles, like dancer Tyler Gage in "Step Up" and Michael "Magic Mike" Lane in "Magic Mike." Now, two decades into his acting career, Tatum has amassed a slate of impressive projects under his belt, including "White House Down," "21 Jump Street," and "Logan Lucky."

While Tatum is proud of what he's achieved, the actor revealed that he went through a "traumatizing experience" in his career that led him to swear off a certain cinematic universe.

One of Channing Tatum's biggest goals in his career was to play a Marvel superhero. But, in an interview with Variety, the actor explained how the chance to both star and co-direct a Marvel film slipped through his fingers. He recalled that in 2016, he and screenwriter Reid Carolin collaborated on a "Gambit" film and pitched it to 20th Century Fox, which owned the rights to X-Men projects. However, at the time, the studio didn't like their idea of creating an R-rated superhero film in the same realm as "Deadpool."

"We wanted to make a romantic comedy superhero movie," Carolin said, adding that they already had a cast and were ready to shoot. Tatum also loved their script so much that he was even willing to step down from co-directing. "They would call him 'flamboyant' in his description," Tatum said of the character. "He was just the coolest person. He could pull anything off. Most superheroes, their outfits are utilitarian ... Gambit's like, 'No, this s***'s just fly, bro!"

Tatum eventually realized they'd been shot down because 20th Century Fox didn't want the two of them to direct. "They wanted anybody but us, essentially, because we had never directed anything," he said. According to Collider, the film had multiple directors attached, but it was ultimately scrapped anyway. Tatum also admitted that he swore off Marvel movies entirely because "it was just too sad." However, he's more than happy to play the mutant in the future if the opportunity opens up. "I would love to play Gambit. I don't think we should direct it. I think that was hubris on our part."