Years before becoming a box office sensation, Channing Tatum starred as Duke in Paramount's 2009 action-thriller G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which grossed more than $300 million worldwide and helped show that he could carry a big action movie. He also reprised his role in 2013's sequel G.I. Joe Retaliation, although his character was killed fairly early on. As it turns out, though, the actor didn't really want to play Duke in the first place, forced into the role as a part of a three-picture deal that he signed with Paramount after his feature film debut role in 2005's Coach Carter. During an appearance on the Howard Stern Show earlier today, Channing Tatum revealed that he "f---ing hates" the movie, and that he originally wanted to play Snake Eyes.

"I'll be honest, I f---ing hate that movie. I was pushed into doing that movie. From Coach Carter, they signed me to a three picture deal as a kid. They give you the contract and they say, 'Three-picture deal, here you go.' And as a young [actor] you're thinking, 'Oh my god, that sounds amazing. I'm doing that!' So, time goes by and you get other jobs and you're building your quote and things happen and you have a dream job that you want to go do, and the studio calls up. It was right during the writers strike. It was G.I. Joe. And I loved G.I. Joe. And I said, 'Can I play Snake Eyes?' And they said, 'No, you're not playing Snake Eyes. You're playing Duke.' The script wasn't any good. I didn't want to do something that I was a fan of. I watched it every morning growing up as a kid and I didn't want to do something that I thought was 1) bad and 2) I didn't know if I wanted to be G.I. Joe. But, I could have been given Scream 5 or something, so I'm super lucky and blessed to have been given that film. It really wasn't all that bad, but I had no option."

Paramount is currently developing G.I. Joe 3 with director D.J. Caruso, which reportedly focuses on Dwayne Johnson's Roadblock character. Given Channing Tatum's death in G.I. Joe Retaliation, it seems unlikely that he will return as Duke for G.I. Joe 3, but screenwriter Aaron Berg came on board in April to write a new draft of the script, so anything is possible. What do you think about Channing Tatum openly dissing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra? You can check out the actor's audio interview from earlier today in the player below.

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