Channing Tatum spent years "trying to learn stillness" after receiving feedback on his unsuccessful Thor audition. The Step Up actor auditioned to play the hammer-wielding god for director Kenneth Branagh, and the filmmaker quickly noticed that Tatum moved around too much. "I didn't really want to be Thor. But I wanted to audition in front of Kenneth Branagh," he recalled in an interview with Variety. "After I did one take, (Branagh) was like, 'You're not allowed to move. Put your hands on this chair.' And I froze. He nailed my crutch. I spent the next five years really trying to learn stillness." Chris Hemsworth was ultimately cast as Thor in the 2011 superhero movie and is still playing the character to this day. Tatum joined the Marvel family years later when he was cast as Gambit in a solo movie, however, the project spent years in development hell before being cancelled altogether. He finally got his chance to play the superhero in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, and will reprise the role - alongside Hemsworth - in 2026's Avengers: Doomsday. With Doomsday, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have a different approach for Gambit, as Tatum explained, "(They) want things to be funny, but they don't want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious - when he drops the Mardi Gras mask - things do matter." While the Magic Mike star is thrilled to be back as his beloved character, he admitted he was hesitant about signing up for the Avengers film because it shoots in London, away from his 12-year-old daughter Everly. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to do Avengers, because I was going to have to be gone, but I was like - it's OK. She's going into middle school now," he added. Avengers: Doomsday is currently in production ahead of a release in December 2026.