What the hell is going on over at 20th Century Fox? The company is staring down a deadline: mid-2019, they will be owned by Disney and all their Marvel movies—the “X-Men” characters and universe—will live under the aegis of Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios. Fox knows this, Disney’s Bob Iger has said so publicly and told all the Fox SVPs. It’s all on the table, and it’s essentially understood that once Fox becomes Disney, their Marvel world will get completely rebooted—everything will be thrown out, all the actors will be recast, they’ll be starting over from scratch (minus “Deadpool” and the universe, probably). That somehow isn’t stopping Fox, who appears to be rushing through X-Men movies before their deadline is up. Yesterday, amongst a flurry of release date changes and Jenga, Fox announced a March 13, 2020 release date for “Gambit,” their long-in-the-works X-Men spin-off film starring Channing Tatum.
READ MORE: Fox Pushes ‘X-Men Dark Phoenix’ To Summer 2019 Just Days After Its Trailer Debut
It’s a curious move given everything that’s happening. Yesterday, Fox faceplanted in front of everyone: they had just, 38 hours earlier, released the new trailer for “Dark Phoenix,” and then, following the underwhelming response to said trailer, announced they were pushing the movie five months from February 2019, to June 2019. Two months later, Fox’s very troubled “X-Men” movie “New Mutants” is scheduled to come out and as of right now, it’s still on that release date. It feels like the right hand is not talking to the left hand over at Fox and if I’m Disney and I’m deciding who gets cut in potential layoffs, I want to know the names of Left and Right.
READ MORE: Simon Kinberg Says Upcoming ‘Gambit’ Film Is Going To Be A Romantic Comedy (Seriously)
Meanwhile, in the mess of all this, a troubled “New Mutants” film that needs massive reshoots and is likely getting pushed to 2020, a “Dark Phoenix” movie currently undergoing reshoots and rumored to be a lot more extensive than originally reported, they’re supposed to make a “Gambit” film?
Simon Kinberg, the Kevin Feige of Fox’s Marvel universe has been saying that “Gambit” may start production in the new year, but currently there is no director attached to the project. Last Channing Tatum was asked, he had no clue what was going on with the movie.
READ MORE: ‘X-Men’ Boss Simon Kinberg Says ‘Gambit’ Will Film This Year…For Real This Time
Kinberg’s said a script is “ready,” but is the director they haven’t hired to make the film happy with that script they haven’t read yet? March 2020 does give the company some time to make the movie, but if it’s not in production before Disney takes over, it’s essentially dead. It seems like a risky move; it also seems like a risky gamble to rush out a film if you’re still looking to stay a Disney employee come the second half of 2019.
READ MORE: The ‘Gambit’ Gamble: What’s Going On With 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Movie?
Moreover, “Gambit” has become the running joke of Fox’s “X-Men” universe. Three directors have been attached at one time—Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, and Gore Verbinski—and they all left after they couldn’t agree on the script Kinberg wanted to shoot. It’s been rewritten dozens of times, and “Gambit” feels as troubled as any other movie that is just telling you it doesn’t want to be made.
“Gambit” was initially scheduled for October 7, 2016, but was yanked from the calendar in early 2016 when it became clear Doug Liman would be making another film instead, and there was no way Fox would make that release date.
In 2017, the movie was given a Feb. 14, 2019 release date, but this one was yanked from the schedule as well. Fox then loosely gave it a June 7, 2019 release date, but even by the beginning of 20178, “Gambit” was taken off the release calendar yet again (that spot is now filled by “Dark Phoenix”).
“Gambit” was originally, but unofficially “announced in January 2014 when “X-Men” producer Lauren Shuler Donner told the world that Tatum was “on board.” Will we see the film in theaters, six years later in 2020? Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it considering all the delays, the script problems, the magical filmmaker they haven’t hired to make the film yet, and a looming Disney merger that will likely quash all of Kinberg and Fox’s plans, but you do you if you think otherwise.
