Channing Tatum's Unmade Gambit Movie Explained
Channing Tatum was cast as Gambit by Fox many years ago, but despite several X-Men movies and other projects having come to life, Tatum's solo Gambit movie never came to be, and there is a reason why it was stuck in development hell. The tide has changed now, of course, after Tatum was unexpectedly recalled for Deadpool & Wolverine, but for a while, Gambit looked like one of the most exciting lost comic book movies.
For many years, Gambit received the short end of the stick in live-action. After several false starts that saw plans to include him in X-Men movies scrapped, he was eventually played by Taylor Kitsch in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which ended up being one of the most criticized in the superhero genre. That didn't do much damage to Hugh Jackman, but Gambit's reputation suffered, and Kitsch was never given the chance to reprise his Marvel hero. Eventually, Gambit's time came back around, and Tatum was cast, but, unthinkably, the project stalled and crashed out entirely before Fox's acquisition by Disney.
Tatum has recently revealed exclusively to ScreenRant that he "would love there to be" a new Gambit solo movie, and that he's "fighting" for the project, as long as he can attract a "very, very good director to realize it." If Gambit's return in Avengers: Doomsday doesn't lead to his death, as some expect, who is to say we won't get to see another unexpected twist in this long-running Gambit production story?
Channing Tatum Was Cast As Gambit More Than A Decade Ago
Back in 2014, the same year he starred in 22 Jump Street, Channing Tatum was cast as Gambit to lead a solo movie. At the time, the only X-Men spin-offs were the first two of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine films, the first of which included Taylor Kitsch's Gambit. 2014 was a huge year for the X-Men, with Tatum's Gambit casting coming in the same year that X-Men: Days of Future Past was released. The film united multiple actors from the original Fox X-Men timeline with the younger generation of X-Men. Despite being cast in 2014, Tatum did not appear as Gambit in the movie, and was instead eyed for a solo film.
X-Men franchise producer Lauren Shuler Donner spoke to Total Film, commenting on Tatum's casting as Gambit at the premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past. She was excited about the prospect of seeing Tatum give life to the mutant, saying, "He’s a rascal, just like Remy LeBeau... I think he’ll be great for Gambit.” Tatum himself had previously talked to MTV about his love for the character. The actor revealed that he felt connected to Gambit due to their shared southern origin. Tatum claimed he would die to play the hero, saying, "Gambit is the only X-Man I’ve ever loved."
Why Channing Tatum's Gambit Movie Never Got Made
In 2023, almost ten years after he was cast as the mutant, Tatum commented on why his Gambit movie was canceled. Fox had many X-Men projects in different stages of development when the studio was bought by Marvel Studios' parent company, Disney. After the deal went through, Marvel's Kevin Feige became responsible for developing stories for the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and all other characters whose rights came from Fox. Tatum's Gambit movie was one of the projects Fox had in development that ended up falling through the cracks after the studio was bought by Disney.
Speaking of the situation, Tatum said, "It got swallowed up into Disney by way of Marvel when they bought Fox." The actor noted that he thought his Gambit movie could have been canceled due to being very different from plans Marvel might have had for the character and the X-Men. The actor was sad to see his passion project fizzle out, with Tatum revealing that his team called Marvel "once in a while" about the possibility of getting the Gambit movie made, but the actor believed it was time to let the project go "spiritually, emotionally, [and] kind of mentally."
Tatum also recently revealed more details exclusively to ScreenRant, including how he and production partner Reid Carolin almost took the project on themselves, and falling in love with their unmade script:
Channing Tatum: We had three different directors that were signed up to do it, and the first one, the studio, Fox, they had a fallout, so that one didn't work out. The second one was just in development for so long with somebody that I was just like, "We got to move to making this thing." So we separated ourselves, and then the third one almost got going with Gore Verbinski, and then creatively all three of us, the studio, him and me, we started in the same place, and then as it developed, we just all grew apart.
Candidly, Tatum also says he's happy it didn't happen - at least not with him in the director's chair:
Channing Tatum: Now that I know exactly what directing is and how complicated it is and how these movies specifically are so hard, you really need to know what you're doing. It can't be your first movie. You've got to really get a lot of different facets under your belt and have a lot of experience because making one of these movies is nearly impossible. Some people really have the formula down and really know how to do it, and some others struggle. It would've just been a catastrophe on a level that I would never have recovered from.
Everything We Know About Channing Tatum's Gambit Movie
Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt signed on to helm the Gambit movie in 2015 after Tatum approached multiple directors for the job. The movie was set to film in New Orleans, where Gambit was raised in the comics. Léa Seydoux was cast to star opposite Tatum in Gambit. The actress would have played Bella Donna Boudreaux. The character comes from Marvel Comics, where Bella grew up alongside Remy Lebeau, and the two characters even went on to marry so their opposing Thieves and Assassin Guilds could find peace before she went into a coma.
After Wyatt left the movie due to budget cuts, Fox brought in Mr. & Mrs. Smith's Doug Liman to direct the Gambit movie. Speaking to Collider, Gambit producer Simon Kinberg teased the tone of the movie, saying, "[It] will be more of like a heist movie and a sexy thriller in a way.” However, Liman would also depart the project. Pirates of the Caribbean franchise director Gore Verbinski then joined the project. Before Verbinski also left the Gambit movie, there were talks about Lizzy Caplan taking over as the film's female lead and Lil Rel Howery appearing.
After more rewrites, Kinberg shared an update on the Gambit movie to IGN in 2018. According to the producer, Tatum's Gambit would have been similar in tone to a romantic comedy, saying, "Gambit has a romantic or sex comedy vibe to it." The idea was for every X-Men spin-off to have a distinct tone. Heist elements from the original version of the film would still play a role, but Gambit was described as "a love story between him and Bella.” Mister Sinister was set to appear in the Gambit movie as its villain. The film would have been R-rated.
Channing Tatum Finally Got To Play Gambit In Deadpool & Wolverine
Ten years after he was first cast in the role, Tatum finally got his chance to play Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine. The actor clearly had a lot of fun in the role, with his version of Gambit wearing a comic book-accurate suit, having Remy LeBeau's Cajun accent, and being a member of the Resistance fighting Cassandra Nova and her army in the Void. Tatum delivered one of the most hilarious performances in the MCU movie, with the actor also showing that he could excel as Gambit in fighting scenes.
Some of Gambit's more memorable lines were jokes about how Tatum had never gotten the chance to play Remy until Deadpool & Wolverine. At the end of the movie, Deadpool asks the TVA to get the surviving members of the Resistance out of the Void. While Tatum's Gambit did not appear after that, Dafne Keen's X-23 was seen having dinner with Wolverine, Deadpool, and the rest of Wade's family and friends. However, a deleted scene did confirm that Gambit survived, and he was then confirmed to be returning in Avengers: Doomsday.
Gambit Will Return In Avengers: Doomsday
When the Avengers: Doomsday cast was first announced, Channing Tatum's name was included among the many, many chairs for the upcoming ensemble, and he subsequently appeared both in Doomsday's trailers and a Dunkin' Donuts commercial tie-in that revealed this version of the character would still be rocking mostly the same accent as he unveiled in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Crucially, it's not 100% clear if this Gambit is the same one last seen in the Void in Deadpool & Wolverine. There's certainly a way to make that the case, given the TVA are sent to rescue him off-screen, but that just opens up questions about why Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, and the other survivors aren't officially confirmed for Doomsday. Given that the X-Men characters who are confirmed to appear cannot be the exact same versions as we've seen before, there's also a chance it's not the same Gambit. Tatum says that question doesn't actually matter: he exclusively told ScreenRant that it won't be directly addressed:
"Even where he came from in Deadpool and Wolverine, like you're saying, he hasn't been anywhere, in a way, and he was born in The Void, in a way. It doesn't go into it is what I would say. We start in such a place that we never really get to address where he's come from."
He also told Variety that fans should expect something a little different from Gambit in Doomsday: he says there will still be some "funny" moments from Gambit, but that overall, it's a more "serious" version of his character: “I’m not gonna go full Cajun. [The Russos] want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter.”
Will he return in Avengers: Secret Wars? That much is unclear at this point, though there are some rumors suggesting he will. That would mean he survives Doomsday despite the expectation that it will finally kill off the Fox X-Men universe for good. If that's the case, there is, of course, a chance that Tatum gets his dream to give Gambit a solo movie after more than a decade in the works as part of the soft MCU reboot we're all expecting to start in 2027.
Channing Tatum's Gambit will return in Avengers: Doomsday, which will be released globally on December 18.
-
A follow-up to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 films starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
-
Avengers: Doomsday
- Release Date
- December 18, 2026
- Runtime
- 165 Minutes
-
Victor von Doom
-
Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic
-
Thor
-
Vanessa Kirby
Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
Avengers: Doomsday is the fifth Avengers film and kicks off Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A stacked cast of heroes both new and old to the MCU — including members of the X-Men — will face off against Victor von Doom, revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 to be played by a returning Robert Downey Jr.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.