Shawn Levy’s Deadpool and Wolverine continues to be one of the year’s most successful films, breaking box-office records for R-rated movies and re-establishing the MCU during a time when audiences were losing track of the MCU Multiverse. There was, at the time of release, a lot of celebration regarding the return of Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine. But fans also lost their minds at the surprise turns delivered by former Fox and New Line standouts Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Chris Evans and Dafne Keen, who reprised classic roles as characters left in The Void. Now that Deadpool and Wolverine is on Blu-ray and DVD, with a Disney+ date announced for November 12, we got to speak with Keen about her role in the sequel… and the demands she had for co-star Channing Tatum.
Tatum, of course, played Gambit in Deadpool and Wolverine, and if you weren’t aware, the actor had been lobbying for that part for years. And he got a lot of attention, post-release, for the Cajun accent he used in the movie. As it turns out, that accent proved a real challenge for Dafne Keen, who had to be serious on set, and couldn’t because Tatum kept cracking her up. As she recalled to CinemaBlend:
I died of laughter. I genuinely… no, I couldn't. This is absurd because, so, people like me and Hugh had to have straight faces and be grumpy. And I can't do that when Channing is doing this absurd thing in the corner, yapping next to me. There's no way. When we were doing the action scene, and it's supposed to be about to face off, and Channing was like, ‘Oh, I'm about to make a name for myself here.’ I'm like, ‘I can't. We can't do this, because I'm gonna lose the plot every time.’ And I did. And at one point, I actually had to tell him, ‘In my coverage, you don't talk.’ Because I kept breaking character. Sue me. He's too funny. Arrest me.
Let’s be honest. We all cracked up when we heard Channing Tatum’s over-exaggerated take on the mutant Cajun in Deadpool and Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds’ responses to Gambit, in character, might have been the funniest jokes in the movie. Yes, Gambit has an accent. But it’s not quite THAT pronounced. So I understand completely why, eventually, Dafne Keen had to straight up tell Tatum, “Stop talking!” Otherwise, she’d never be able to keep a straight face for her close ups.
Will this be the end of Gambit? Unlikely, as there was a deleted scene indicating that he survived the battle in the Void, and I’m betting we see him on screen again in Avengers: Secret Wars – a movie that is expected to be a massive team up exercise.
As for Dafne Keen, it’s worth noting that her character IS left with Deadpool and Wolverine in the closing moments of the movie. So Laura, also, has survived, and likely will fight another day.
Deadpool & Wolverine is available now on Digital and Blu-ray, and streams on Disney+ November 12.
