Channing Tatum’s dream of bringing his Gambit movie to the big screen might never have panned out, but one of the film’s prospective stars has offered a glimpse into what the X-Men project could have been. For quite some time, Tatum has been outspoken about his eagerness to take on the role of Gambit, a character from the X-Men universe. He did have a stroke of luck last year when he portrayed Gambit in the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, yet he still remains keen on the idea of a standalone film. With the MCU yet to deliver a full-scale X-Men movie despite integrating mutants into its storyline, the prospects of a Gambit film seem dim, and a series doesn’t seem to be on the horizon either. However, during a recent conversation with Business Insider, Lizzy Caplan, who was set to be a co-star in the film, divulged some interesting details about what the project could have entailed.
In the interview, Caplan expressed her thoughts on the abandoned film, saying, “It was a really cool idea. It’s strange that it got scrapped.” She highlighted how rarely such movies are shelved, yet this one was. Caplan was slated for a leading role back in 2017, though her exact character remained a mystery. She revealed that her involvement included meetings with Tatum and the film’s creative team. “We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it. I think there was a start date. I had meetings with Channing, and there were a couple different… we had a director, then we didn’t, but I had multiple meetings with Channing and the other producers,” she explained.
Caplan also mentioned the film would have been a “’30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in that world, which would have been really fun,” a fresh take that many could get behind. Superhero films often fall into the trap of being repetitive, treating “superhero” as a genre rather than an exciting film element. Sadly, it seems this particular vision of Gambit will remain unfulfilled, given Marvel’s current streamlined approach to its projects. Yet, hope lingers that we might see Tatum don the Gambit persona again in the future, playful accent and all.
