Channing Tatum Passed on ‘G.I. Joe’ 7 Times and Asked to Die in Sequel

• Channing Tatum said he passed on “G.I. Joe” seven times before signing on to the 2009 movie.
• The star said he only did the film because of the deal he had with the studio Paramount Pictures.
• Tatum asked to be killed off in the sequel because he “obviously” didn’t want to be in it.

While Channing Tatum is known for his roles in the likes of “Magic Mike” and “21 Jump Street,” he also starred in the first two “G.I. Joe” movies early on in his career as lead soldier Duke.

However, the actor originally didn’t want to lead the movie from Paramount Pictures, and passed on the project “seven times” before eventually signing on. 

Tatum recently took a lie detector test during an interview with Vanity Fair when he touched on his opinion of the two “G.I. Joe” movies that he appeared in, explaining that he only agreed to star in the franchise because he was still under a deal he had with the studio.

The star said: “The first one I passed on seven times, but they had an option on me and I had to do the movie.”

Fans might remember that in the 2013 sequel, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” Duke is killed off in the first 10 minutes of the film when villain Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) masquerades as the US president and calls an airstrike on the hero and his squad in Korea. 

In the interview, Tatum confirmed that he asked to be killed off because he didn’t want to be in the franchise anymore. He said: “So, the second one, I obviously just didn’t want to be in that one either.”

When asked if he regretted asking to be killed off, Tatum kept it simple and said, “No.” 

This isn’t the first time the actor has discussed his “G.I. Joe” exit, as he previously appeared on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2015 and said, “Look, I’ll be honest. I fucking hate that movie. I hate that movie.”

Tatum also explained that he loved the franchise as a kid and asked to play Snake Eyes, but was told he couldn’t. 

“‘Can I play Snake Eyes?’ And they’re like, ‘No, you’re not playing Snake Eyes, you’re playing G.I. Joe.’ The script wasn’t any good. And I didn’t want to do something that I was a fan of since I was a kid and watched every morning growing up,” he recalled.