Channing Tatum to Play Gambit, Just as Soon as There’s a Movie for Him
X-Men producer honcho Lauren Shuler Donner today confirmed in a red carpet interview that Channing Tatum will play Gambit in some future movie, a role the actor has publicly coveted, but gave no details beyond that, saying just that Tatum was right for the role because he’s a rogue, but also a sweetheart. This begs a number of questions, namely: when will Tatum be taking this role, will it be for a solo movie or as part of the larger team, and most importantly, are we all just agreeing to forget that X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened?
Not that that’s a bad idea in the slightest, because that film caused more harm than good to the already-convoluted timelines of the X-Men film series that will probably be further muddied by the time-travelling antics of Days of Future Past, which comes out next week. But it’s funny the way this question is being phrased to Donner. “What characters do you really want to bring to the big screen next?”
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Pity poor Taylor Kitsch, who did his best with what amounted to a bit part as Gambit (aka Remy LeBeau) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film was clearly intended as a launchpad for future spinoffs, but Kitsch and Ryan Reynolds don’t get mentioned much anymore when people talk about Gambit and Deadpool, and the next Wolverine movie took care to focus just on the title character, rather than try to be another big team movie.
Much like Kitsch, Tatum is not from New Orleans, so who knows if he’ll even attempt a Cajun accent for the part. Gambit is probably best known to audiences from the ‘90s X-Men series, where he was cartoonish even for that show (which was, of course, a Saturday morning cartoon). He’s best known for his romance with Rogue, where the two are unable to touch each other because of her energy-draining powers. He’s also best known as the X-Man fans love to hate, mostly because he was ridiculously over-exposed at the peak of his popularity and has a really specific mutant power (he can charge objects he holds with explosive energy, though he mostly uses this to throw playing cards at people).
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This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/05/channing-tatum-to-play-gambit-just-as-soon-as-theres-a-movie/370786/
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