Ryan Reynolds has revealed Marvel bosses are “obsessed” with Channing Tatum’s performance as Gambit.

Tatum made an appearance as Gambit in Reynolds’ hit movie Deadpool & Wolverine earlier this year, and Reynolds hopes the character will secure a standalone film in the future.

“I honestly don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in the bookkeeping sessions at Marvel, but I do know that they’re obsessed with him in that role,” he said during an appearance on Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast.

Reynolds went on to compare Tatum’s desire to get a Gambit solo movie to his own pursuit to land a Deadpool franchise.

“It’s kind of like the same situation I went through,” he explained. “Once you show that it works well, that’s really what they need. Sometimes they just need to see it in action.”

After test footage was leaked of Reynolds playing the wisecracking character Deadpool in 2014, the fan reaction to the performance led 20th Century Fox to give the go ahead for the first Deadpool movie.

Tatum has made no secret of his hopes for a Gambit film.

The star and his producer partner Reid Carolin had spent four years developing a Gambit movie for 20th Century Fox, but the plans were scrapped following the 2019 merge of Disney and Fox.

Earlier this year, Tatum revealed he was forever indebted to Reynolds for giving him the chance to finally bring the Cajun card-slinging character to life on the big screen.

“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But he fought for me and Gambit. I will owe him probably forever,” he revealed on Instagram. “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.”

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