Keke Palmer Is ‘Ready’ For Channing Tatum To Play Gambit To Her Rogue: We’ll Be ‘Perfect Together’ (Exclusive)
Keke Palmer spoke to HollywoodLife about why she and Channing Tatum are the ‘perfect’ pair to play Rogue and Gambit in the next ‘X-Men’ project.
After dressing as Rogue for Halloween 2022, Keke Palmer is ready to give fans what they want by portraying the iconic X-Men character on the big screen. And she wants to do it with Channing Tatum, who was supposed to play Rogue’s on-again/off-again lover Gambit in a standalone movie before the Disney merger with 21st Century Fox in 2019.
“I believe that me and Channing Tatum will be perfect together, honey,” Keke, 29, told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY when discussing her partnership with Doritos for its Big “Dip” Campaign about its new line of Doritos-flavored dips and Big Dip Energy giveaway.
“I’m ready for him to be my on-screen husband,” the Nope actress added about Channing, 42. “Or boyfriend, whatever. We don’t even have to have any labels. I’m ready for it.”
Keke explained that Channing “doesn’t take himself too seriously,” but he’s also “quite endearing as a performer.” Keke thinks that combination makes Channing the perfect Gambit to her Rogue when the X-Men (eventually) enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“It’s not like he doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and he’s like a jerk off,” Keke said. “It’s like, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and it’s like, ‘oh, my gosh, I want to see you win.’ And so I think that coupled with my kind of like, ‘oh, you know, I don’t take myself too seriously. But hey, I’m gonna give it my best shot,’ I think together, we could be, like, fab. I love the casting already.”
While Anna Paquin notably played Rogue in Fox’s X-Men films, Channing never got the chance to play Gambit on the big screen. He talked about feeling “traumatized” after the Gambit movie was scrapped in an interview with Variety in Feb. 2022.
“I shut off my Marvel machine. I haven’t been able to see any of the movies,” Channing admitted. “I loved that character. It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so ready to play him.” But Channing did confirm that he’d play Gambit if given the chance. “I would love to play Gambit. I don’t think we [him and his longtime producer partner Reid Carolin] should direct it. I think that was hubris on our part,” he said.