There are two X-Men spinoff projects that are caught in the crossfire of Disney’s acquisition of Fox. The first, the nearly completed New Mutants, which has yet to complete reshoots for this year’s planned release. Then there’s Gambit, the New Orleans-based mutant known for throwing cards and manipulating kinetic energy.
The popular X-Men character has been in development hell after losing several directors of the years (including The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Gore Verbinski), even though Channing Tatum has been attached to star through it all. The soon-to-be-solidified merger puts everything in jeopardy, which is why the film’s release was pushed all the way to 2020, assuming it ever goes into production. If it were, a new article on Deadline alleges that Tatum would be open to direct the film just to get it off the ground. This shows just how passionately he believes in either the character or the script that’s also been completed by Josh Zetumer.
As much as we’d love to see Gambit back on the big screen, it feels highly unlikely at this point, especially with Marvel shows being pulled from Netflix and New Mutants collecting dust on the shelf. The idea of Tatum taking the reigns is an interesting one, but I don’t think it moves the needle over at Fox, who has to be discussing all things Marvel internally with Disney whether they’ll admit it or not.
More as it comes in.
