You would think that if a relatively big star like Channing Tatum would get caught up in the super hero film sweepstakes, he’d get a better character than the relatively mediocre, sub-character of Gambit from the “X-Men” comics and movies, but evidently the “Magic Mike” star just loves the character.
And there’s been chatter for several months now that Tatum was talking to producers to possibly play the character in upcoming “X-Men” movies. And today that’s been confirmed by Total Film, who spoke with producer Lauren Shuler Donner at the “X-Men: Days of Future Past” premiere in London. “He’s a rascal, Channing, just like Remy LeBeau, and he can handle the action—we all know that,” she said. “He’s not from New Orleans, but he is a Southerner and he understands that world.”
Interestingly enough, the Gambit appearance won’t be for the next X-Men movie, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” already slated for 2016 and instead, according to Buzzfeed and Borys Kit, Tatum will play Gambit in an X-Men solo spin-off movie. And THR even calls it a “stand-alone franchise,” but that does seems a little premature for this small of a character. Then again, they do have Tatum as the lead…
But as of right now there’s no set date or presumably, a finished screenplay. And before we forget, Fox announced a slew of release dates earlier this year and the July 13, 2018 date has been reserved for an untitled Marvel Comics film. So it’s entirely possible the Cajun mutant character could be seen on that date. There’s also a ton of other possibilities for that date, including a sequel to ‘Apocalypse’ or a Mystique solo movie, but Gambit is, ahem, in the cards.
As for additional X-Men movies, Donner says she’d love to see, “Deadpool, yes.X-Force is fascinating, we love it, it allows us to be grittier.” Maybe we’ll see those down the road one day too.