While Warner Bros. and DC are attempting to steal Marvel’s title of Most Ambitious Cinematic Universe, lest we forget the burgeoning superpower that is 20th Century Fox. Wangling the rights to Marvel’s X-Men and a slew of other supporting characters, their X-Universe has birthed an incredibly successful franchise. With the exception of one, solitary flick; X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Critically blasted, the flick did however introduce a TON of fan favourites from the inked panels, including The Blob, Deadpool (who’s also got a stand-alone flick on the way) and… Gambit.
The card-slinging smooth criminal, aka Remy LeBeau, appeared briefly for a subplot and failed to impress fans. Years later, speculation arose concerning his own spinoff feature. Word quickly began to circulate last year, with Channing Tatum’s name cropping up as Fox’s likely candidate for the role. In a rare case of a truthful rumour, right before X-Men: Days Of Future Past was released, the actor was officially confirmed. And then… silence.
Until now. Doing the rounds for his upcoming animated pic, The Book Of Life, Tatum spoke with MTV News about the status of the project. As it stands now, he’s working with producers to iron out the story before a scriptwriter is brought on board. Yes, it’s in the very early stages – and that’s exactly where we’ll find Gambit apparently. Not wanting to reveal too much, Tatum did let on that it’ll likely be an origin story to establish Mr. LeBeau in a new way:
“I don’t want to give too much away because we don’t know that much right now other than…we obviously know who Gambit is. We really do want to try our hardest to give something fresh. We’re obviously going to go to the saving the world superhero movies eventually, but maybe not for the first one.
“We want to introduce this character in a very different way. You know, when you try to do something different you never really know, right off the bat, what that is. We’re feeling our way, and really just kind of proving the concept of that person.”
The notion of a different origin story is one that Marvel have already faced, and DC are gearing up toward. Fox’s past attempts weren’t massively successful, as the aforementioned Wolverine outing was such a disaster that a Magneto origin spinoff was duly canned. Sounds like Fox have learned from their mistakes and intend to create an exceptional first chapter for Gambit.