Avengers: Doomsday Delivers Set Pieces That Leave Wesley Snipes' Blade MCU Debut in the Dust

Channing Tatum is out here promising that Avengers: Doomsday will make your brain leak out your ears. Subtle? Not even a little. If you were one of the people who lost it when Wesley Snipes’ Blade crashed Deadpool & Wolverine, Tatum says this next Avengers movie will blow that out of the water. By a lot.

Tatum’s hype level: off the charts

After finally getting to play Gambit last year, Tatum is back in Doomsday and talking like a man who just saw the whole third act. He told Entertainment Tonight that the movie’s scale and surprises are on another level, and specifically compared it to the Blade moment in Deadpool & Wolverine... multiplied.

"I don’t know how to describe it to you. It’s going to make your brains ooze out of your ears. Like in the way I knew when Blade walks on screen in Deadpool & Wolverine, people are going to physically lose their actual minds. It’s that, but I don’t know, maybe times 50. It’s gonna be one of them things. As a comic fan, you’re just not ready."

Is he overselling it? Maybe. But between ongoing chatter about Chris Evans coming back and a Ghost Rider cameo floating around, you can see where his confidence is coming from.

Gambit, but not 'full Cajun'

If you loved Tatum’s extra-thick Cajun accent the first time, brace yourself: he told Variety he’s dialing it down a notch for Doomsday. Studio folks, he said, had to get their heads around the accent and whether audiences would actually understand him. His words: "I’m not gonna go full Cajun."

He also says the Russo Brothers, who are directing Doomsday, want humor in the mix but nowhere near full Deadpool energy. The aim is to keep the jokes in check, keep the drama tight, and let Gambit drop the party vibe when things actually matter.

A fight with Doom that almost was

Tatum hinted that Gambit was supposed to throw down with Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom. According to him, they had plans for "tons more shooting," including a "big fight" with Doom, but an injury he suffered on Doomsday forced him to the bench for a stretch. He still did close-ups, but his stunt double handled the heavy lifting. If that fight doesn’t make the final cut, consider this the 'what could have been' section.

The Russos posted a puzzle, fans started decoding

Marvel loves an Easter egg, and the Russos are fluent in that language. They dropped a black-and-white photo from set on Instagram with the caption "Look hard..." At first glance, it looks like nothing. At second glance, fans started seeing letters everywhere.

One camp thinks the props are arranged to spell DOOMSDAY. Others swear it’s actually A, V, and X — as in Avengers vs. X-Men. That second theory lines up with the rumor mill, including insider Daniel Richtman claiming Marvel is filming an "epic fight" between the two teams. And since Gambit isn’t the only X-Men character in this movie, AvX isn’t a wild reach. For the comics-curious: AvX is a big Marvel storyline where the Avengers and X-Men stop being polite and start getting real.

• Rumors in play: Chris Evans returning, a Ghost Rider cameo, and a full-on Avengers vs. X-Men showdown reportedly being filmed

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026. If Tatum’s math checks out, bring earplugs for the brain ooze.