Fan favorite X-Men mutant Gambit has been promised a starring turn for a while now. He had the unfortunate luck of making his big screen debut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Though Taylor Kitsch was serviceable as the Ragin’ Cajun, he was stuck in a movie that doomed him to be forgotten. Recently, Channing Tatum has been attached to a Gambit feature film, but the project has now suffered a wound that may signal its death.
Fox has removed Gambit from its release schedule entirely. This would normally signal an almost certain demise for the project, but Fox has also slated two mystery Marvel projects for 2017 and 2018 respectively. Could one of these be a spot for Gambit to have a little more time to figure out its pre-production? The film lost its original director, Rupert Wyatt, and Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity) came on in Novemebr of last year. It’s possible that Gambit might move to one of these dates.
However, you can guarantee that 2018 date (January 12) is reserved for Deadpool 2, so Gambit could be slated for 2017 (October 6). After the success of Deadpool, Gambit might be re-tooling itself to accent more of the comedy of the piece. Tatum obviously has comedic chops — 21 and 22 Jump Street are some of the best comedies in recent years — and it would be a shame to see Gambit’s natural charm to get lost in an atypical superhero flick.
Deadpool is going to change how Fox looks at their Marvel properties from here on out. That’s probably a good thing, but let’s hope they learn the right lessons: be true to the character and trust in your tone. Those were two big problems with Fox’s recent Fantastic Four, and I don’t think there are many of us who want a repeat of that scenario:
Would you like to be part of the Fandom team? Join our Fan Contributor Program and share your voice on Fandom.com!
