Why You Haven't Seen Channing Tatum Onscreen In A While

In 2012, Channing Tatum had the sort of year actors dream of. Thanks to films like The Vow, 21 Jump Street, and Magic Mike, Tatum enjoyed a streak of box office successes that span multiple genres. 2012 made it clear that Tatum's appeal isn't limited to blockbuster fans or those interested in R-rated comedy — he is capable of resonating with all moviegoers, across all walks of life. Though he had been part of hits like Dear John prior to 2012, this was the year when he truly came to life as a cinematic force to be reckoned with. Subsequent hits like 22 Jump Street and Magic Mike XXL seemed to further indicate that Tatum's appeal was not something momentary: This guy was here to stay.

Since headlining 2015's Magic Mike XXL, though, Tatum's presence on the big screen has become sparse. He's only served as headliner for one live-action movie (2017's Logan Lucky), otherwise taking on only small roles in movies like The Hateful Eight and Hail, Caesar!, or voice acting parts in animated films like Smallfoot. His absence from the silver screen has been no accident. A variety of factors, ranging from those fully in Tatum's control to those stemming from the shifting Hollywood landscape, help explain where Tatum has gone after he seemed to cement himself in 2012 as an unstoppable movie star, and why the shift has happened at all.

In 2006, Tatum got put on everyone's radar with a dance movie called Step Up. It was a sleeper hit that immediately made people pay attention to Tatum as a leading man. Unfortunately, it's doubtful Tatum would have been able to get his big break in modern Hollywood, since major studios have largely ignored smaller-scale genres like dance movies in the last decade. Without the next Step Up getting made, the next Channing Tatum also struggles to get discovered. Perhaps nothing reflects the radically overhauled priorities of mainstream Hollywood more than the fact that one of Step Up's production companies, Touchstone Pictures, has ceased to exist entirely.

Step Up isn't the only type of Tatum vehicle that Hollywood is no longer interested in. Tatum's massive 2012 was buoyed by a romantic drama (The Vow), an R-rated comedy (21 Jump Street), and a sleek Steven Soderbergh picture (Magic Mike). In the years since, romantic dramas have largely migrated to Netflix, R-rated comedies have also moved to streaming services, and Soderbergh movies — you guessed it — have pivoted to Netflix and HBO Max. In just a decade, the kind of movies that cemented Tatum's status as a leading man are largely gone from the theatrical landscape. Hollywood studios have shifted focus over to action blockbusters, and as a result, Tatum has been left adrift. This doesn't mean he can't make his mark in other genres, but it does make it a whole lot more difficult for him to do so.

While his live-action leading man roles have been scarce, Channing Tatum hasn't been entirely absent from the pop culture landscape in recent years. The trick is that he's largely taken on projects that haven't required him to show up on screen. Since 2016, Tatum has done a large amount of voice acting, particularly for Warner Bros. Entertainment's Warner Animation Group. In addition to his role as a very sunny Superman in The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Tatum also played the lead role of Migo in 2018's Smallfoot.

Tatum's recent penchant for voice acting isn't just limited to kid-friendly feature films, though. He also lent his vocals to an absurd parody of 1980s cop dramas entitled Comrade Detective, which hit Amazon Video in 2017. This project required Tatum to use his voice for the dubbed-over vocals of one of the show's lead characters, alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This oddball production received decent marks from critics but, as to be expected with something whose premise has "cult hit" written all over it, wasn't successful enough to score a second season. Even if it didn't last long, Comrade Detective serves as another example of the kind of work Tatum has shifted over to recently. As the succeeding years have seen him join animated productions like America: The Motion Picture, it doesn't look like Tatum will be giving up on his forays into voice acting any time soon.

At the end of 2012, in the wake of headlining three massive hits, Channing Tatum said that he was looking to shift his career in a new direction. He wasn't just going to be a leading man, he asserted — he was looking to explore new creative avenues. "By the end of next year, [production partner Reid Carolin and I are] going to shut things down and write the first thing that we're going to direct," Tatum explained to Entertainment Weekly." We're going to be like, alright, no more acting parts for a minute, let's take a few and really get caring about that section of our career." This was the start of Tatum not only expressing his desire to explore directing, but also him making it clear that he is willing to put his acting career on the back burner in order to pursue what makes him fulfilled as an artist.

In the years since this announcement, Tatum has often gone on brief hiatuses, which he openly ascribes to his inclinations to direct and not just spend his life headlining motion pictures. As a result, Tatum has made it apparent that his artistic ideals aren't entirely yoked to acting There's a lot more going on with Channing Tatum, and that has meant that his time away from the silver screen has been a conscious choice, rather than a reflection of his acting opportunities drying up.

Tatum isn't just an actor — he's also someone who wants to have a creative say in the projects he headlines. Starting with 2011's 10 Years, Tatum has regularly produced the movies he appears in. Whether they're comedies like 21 Jump Street or Soderbergh movies like Logan Lucky, Tatum is someone who wants a certain level of control over the projects he chooses to be a part of. This is, as longtime Tatum fans know, an extension of his own creative instincts, which most visibly drive his directorial ambitions. Moreover, when actors function as producers, they gain (ideally, anyway) an enhanced level of assurance that the movies they appear in won't sully their reputation. 

In recent years, Tatum's work as a producer has only increased, as the actor has placed a great level of importance on his own production company. Tatum's production company, Free Association, has already worked on some of his leading man projects, including Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street. In recent years, the company has also backed films that don't involve Tatum, like the Kevin Hart vehicle Fatherhood. Tatum's commitment to further growing this outfit was cemented when Free Association and MGM signed a first-look deal in the wake of the studio acquiring the distribution rights to Tatum's directorial debut Dog. Keeping a company like that running smoothly is no easy task: Even with two other people running Free Association alongside him, Tatum's producing habits have ensured he can't just focus on headlining.

You'd think a big-name actor like Channing Tatum would have managed to score a role in a superhero movie at this point. But he hasn't — mainly because Tatum has had his eyes on a specific superhero for years now, in the form of Gambit. This Cajun member of the X-Men has been piquing Tatum's interest since September 2013. Tatum officially hopped into the role in May 2014, and, a year later, Rupert Wyatt signed on to direct.

After that, however, Wyatt left the project, which began Gambit's long, strange struggle to secure a director. Doug Liman and Gore Verbinski both signed on to direct the film before ultimately leaving. These issues went hand-in-hand with the fact that the script and budget for Gambit kept getting overhauled. Gambit was also always being reconceived, with initial plans to turn it into an expensive blockbuster being scuttled before subsequent plans saw it reimagined as either a heist movie or a romantic comedy. These behind-the-scenes problems meant the production was constantly delayed, with release dates in October 2016 and June 2019 coming and going. All of this happened despite Tatum's unwavering enthusiasm for Gambit. In fact, in the last few months of its existence, Tatum even considered taking on the director's chair himself! One undeniable truth has emerged from the morass of this movie: Tatum's years of effort in trying to get Gambit off the ground kept him plenty busy, and thus unable to work on other potential acting gigs.