Channing Tatum praises Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy following ‘Deadpool & Wolverine”s record debut
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on July 30, 2024
(SPOILERS FOR “DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE”) A “grateful” Channing Tatum took to social media to thank Ryan Reynolds and his Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy for making his superhero dreams come true.
Tatum, who stole scenes from Reynolds in his previous Levy collab, the hit Free Guy, spent four years trying to get a movie based on the X-Men character Gambit off the ground — only to have the project fall apart when 20th Century Fox was acquired by ABC News’ parent company Disney.
(Spoilers, final warning) However, Reynolds gave Tatum a chance to suit up in his new movie.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever, but he fought for me and Gambit,” the actor expressed on X.
“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’s post came with a throwback photo of him and Ryan from San Diego Comic-Con in 2015 — when Reynolds first teased footage from what would become 2016’s Deadpool — and a pic from the “Deadpool & Wolverine Ultimate Festival of Life” last week.
In both photos, Channing is wearing the same t-shirt with Gambit’s face on it.
The actor recalled of the throwback meeting, “I think I ran back stage [sic] … and I think I just hugged him and was like holy s*** you did it man. It’s perfect.”
Tatum continued, “I didn’t know him really at all back then. But since then I can say that there is almost no one that has had my back in this industry more than [Ryan].”
Channing called Levy a “brilliant creator” who made a “masterpiece” in Deadpool & Wolverine that left him “literally screaming in the theater.”
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