Former 'Gambit' director dismisses plans for Channing Tatum Marvel movie: 'I think it's done'

Ben Arnold
·Contributor
Gambit (Credit: Marvel)
A film based on the Gambit comic book hero may be off. (Photo: Marvel)

Anyone still holding out a last kernel of hope that Channing Tatum will be bursting into the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be in for some sobering news.

According to Doug Liman, who was set to direct the troubled Gambit project, in which Tatum would have played the playing card-throwing X-Man, it's all over.

Speaking to Screengeek, Liman was asked whether there were any updates on the status of the movie, to which he replied: “No. Because I don’t know.

“I haven’t had an update since before the buyout,” he added. “I think it’s done.”

Gambit was originally one of the Marvel projects being developed by Fox, as announced way back in 2014.

But now that Disney has bought out Fox's movie slate, it appears that Tatum's Gambit is one of the casualties which, judging by the long silences between updates on the project, was always likely to have been the case.

Channing Tatum arrives at the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Channing Tatum was linked to the Gambit film. (Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

It perhaps didn't help that, thanks to the regular delays, the film went through four potential directors: Liman, Rupert Wyatt, Gore Verbinski and even Tatum himself at one stage.

Then it was rumored that Tatum had also walked away, and in May this year, the movie mysteriously disappeared from the Disney slate.

The character, who briefly appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine played by Taylor Kitsch, was a bit of an odd proposition from the get-go.

Born in Louisiana, Remy Etienne LeBeau is a fiercely proud Cajun mutant who is able to manipulate kinetic energy. His calling card is more literal than most, in that he is impressively skilled in throwing playing cards.

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