At one time, Channing Tatum and filmmaking partner Reid Carolin attempted to make a superhero flick set within the world of the popular “X-Men” franchise focusing on Cajun team member, Gambit. The superhero film was expected to tackle the charming mutant’s origins in New Orleans during his time with the Guild of Thieves. “Gambit” had been aiming to be more of a comedic heist adventure rather than the regular comic book outings that end in a fury of city-leveling CGI action sequences. The film was ultimately scrapped alongside other expensive projects during the transition of Disney taking over operations at 20th Century Fox.
Years later, Tatum is now doing press for his new film “Dog” and revealed to Yahoo Entertainment that he’d be willing to revisit “Gambit” in the future and added he would even “audition” for the role, that’s assuming Marvel Studios wants to add the character in their “X-Men” reboot or elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“We would absolutely revisit it. Hopefully, we get to have a shot if they ever make it, or if they ever put Gambit in one of the other movies, I would love to have a shot at it — I would even audition. Fingers crossed, I hope someone hears this and it gets across,” Tatum said.
Tatum also mentioned that they were tailoring it more for the “Deadpool” universe and Disney seemingly didn’t know what to do with it.
“We were kind of tailoring it because it was at Fox, to fit into more of the ‘Deadpool’ world and I do think [Disney/Marvel] were kind of ‘I’m not sure where this goes,'” he said. “And I think they needed a minute.”
While there had plans to add Gambit on the roster in the first “X-Men” trilogy, it wasn’t until “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” in 2009 that the lovable mutant thief got his messy big-screen debut and was played by Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch (“True Detective“), who would later star in Disney’s massive box office flop “John Carter.”
It’s still not clear what Marvel’s plans are for the X-Men, or Gambit for that matter, as Jon Watts‘ “Fantastic Four” is seemingly their big priority alongside developing “Deadpool 3.” However, one of the big things fans have been lamenting is that romance between Gambit and Rogue was never adapted to the movies, giving Marvel an excuse to use the mutant down the line for more than explosions and one-liners.