Channing Tatum ‘Gambit’ Spin-Off Gets Green Light

Channing Tatum’s Gambit character will get his very own spin-off film from Fox, according to a new report from Deadline Hollywood .

Tatum will star as the card-flinging mutant in a solo outing written by Josh Zetumer, who scripted the Robocop reboot. Tatum will also produce with Reid Carolin, his partner at Free Association, Lauren Shuler Donner of the The Donner Company, and Simon Kinberg of Genre Films.

Deadline also reports that the film’s story comes from a treatment written by none other than seminal X-Men scribes Chris Claremont. Claremont’s long run on Marvel’s X-Men comics spanned the 1970s into the 1990s and is considered a definitive era for the merry mutants. Last summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past was based on a classic Claremont story from 1981.

Channing Tatum’s Gambit will be the second film version of the character. He had a cameo in 2009’s poorly-received X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when he was briefly portrayed by Taylor Kitsch. Earlier this year, Tatum was rumored for the role for 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse.

The actor told MTV earlier this year that he was making a push for a solo Gambit film, saying that he’s “been pretty vocal about wanting to be the part of Gambit for a very long time.”

The character first appeared in the comics in 1990 and quickly became a popular character in the world of the X-Men. New Orleans native Remy LeBeau has the mutant ability to charge objects with kinetic energy, which he uses to explosive results. Going by the code name Gambit, he often charged playing cards and has an on-again, off-again romance with fellow X-Man Rogue.

X-Men: Apocalypse will take place in the 1980s and follow this year’s successful Days of Future Past, which effectively rebooted the film saga’s history. The villain will be the eponymous Apocalypse, an ancient mutant committed to his kind’s evolutionary superiority.

Gambit’s story is being kept a closely guarded secret, according to Deadline. What connection it and the character will have to the broader X-Men film universe is still unknown. Gambit was originally talked up as a possibility for Apocalypse but could instead stay in his own, stand-alone picture – for the time being at least.

“We’ve talked about it being a standalone, first, and actually trying to change the ‘hero, super-hero movie,’” Tatum told MTV. “Because Gambit is not your typical hero. He’s a thief. He walks on the gray. I’m hoping we can change it a little bit, and then ultimately feather into the other ones.”

While it officially has its star in Channing Tatum, Gambit does not yet have a release date. The actor’s next film will be Foxcatcher, followed by the currently-in-production Magic Mike XXL.

[photo credit: Doug Kline]

Channing Tatum ‘Gambit’ Spin-Off Gets Green Light