Gambit – October 7, 2016
Starting in April of 2014, actor Channing Tatum began lobbying for the role of Gambit in the X-Men franchise. Chatter continued on the matter, but it wasn’t until October of 2014 that 20th Century Fox committed to the plan when they hired RoboCop co-writer Josh Zetumer to write the script based on a treatment by comic scribe Chris Claremont.
Tatum expressed a desire to “change the superhero movie” with Gambit and would go on to describe it as an Anti-Hero Origin story.
“None of us were sure how he was going to deal with the X-Men world. But we’re going to be changing some of the tropes of these movies. It’s always about saving the world (laughs), but maybe we’re going to shift things a little bit,” he told Empire. “There’s so many ways you can take [an origin story]. You could do it like ‘Batman Begins,’ or a different take and go the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ route. All I can say is, I’m super excited.”
Reports at first cited that Tatum would appear as the character first in X-Men: Apocalypse before transintiong to his own solo film, but this decision was later changed opting instead for the character to debut in his own movie.
Director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) was brought on in June 2015 to direct the film with production originally eyed to begin in the fall in New Orleans. Rupert Wyatt officially exited the Gambit film in September and the project is currently without a director, though Edge of Tomorrow‘s Doug Liman is reportedly in the mix for the job.
Lea Seydoux of Blue is the Warmest Color and Spectre will play Bella Donna Boudreaux in the film. Created by Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell, the character was the daughter of the leader of the New Orleans Assassins’ Guild in the comics and Remy LeBeau’s first love. The two were married as part of an arranged ceremony to unite the guilds but things went south and Gambit was forced to flee New Orleans. Afterward, Bella developed her own mutant ability not entirely dissimilar to Gambit’s.
Head to page 8 for our final superhero movie of 2016, Doctor Strange >>
