The Gambit solo movie has come back from the dead more times than Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers combined. Though Channing Tatum has remained a constant, the film has cycled through pretty much every available director in Hollywood, coming close to full production on multiple occasions before creative clashes and scheduling conflicts sent the studio back to the drawing board.
But things have been looking promising as of late. Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski signed on to helm and a release date of February 14th, 2019 was announced. With things gearing up to head into production shortly, it seemed like the project was finally – finally! – about to get off the ground. That is, until Gambit hit yet another roadblock today, with Deadline reporting that Verbinski has now dropped out, leading us to believe that this spinoff is indeed cursed.
As usual, the reason for the director’s departure apparently comes down to scheduling issues, with the split said to be amicable. Tatum still remains on board, and from what we understand, the search for a replacement is already underway. Hopefully, this won’t push back production too much, as filming was set to begin in March, with New Orleans playing host to the long-gestating X-Men project for a total of 10 weeks.
Granted, Fox still has more than enough time to find someone, so it’s entirely possible that everything will remain on track. Then again, when it comes to this particular movie, we won’t be able to rest easy until production has kicked off in earnest, as there’s been far too many false starts and stumbles.
No word yet on who may step in to replace Verbinski, but Gambit is still expected to slink into theaters on February 14th, 2019. Clear your Valentine’s Day plans, for Remy LeBeau is coming to town.