Channing Tatum talks Gambit and changing superhero movie tropes

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It's nice to know that despite its status as the X-Men film franchise whipping boy, we'll actually get to see the fan-favourite characters who were treated so poorly in X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE get a second chance in their own standalone films. Two of those characters will be returning to our screens in 2016: DEAPOOL on February 12, 2016 with Ryan Reynolds reprising his role and GAMBIT on October 7, 2016 with Channing Tatum replacing Taylor Kitsch as the ragin' Cajun.

Channing Tatum spoke with Empire Magazine where he expressed his love for the character and what drew him to the role:

I love Gambit, I grew up in the South; my father’s from Louisiana. We’d go to New Orleans and I heard all the dialects. It felt so different from the rest of America; it has its own ancient culture. So I identified with that. And he always felt the most real of the X-Men to me. He’s kind of a tortured soul and he’s not a good guy. But he’s not a bad guy, either. He walks his own path. And of course he plays cards and drinks and is a martial-arts badass!

No director has been attached to the film yet but ROBOCOP screenwriter Josh Zetumer recently turned in his first draft of the script which Channing Tatum describes as "killer."

Josh Zetumer just turned in the first draft of the script, and it’s killer. None of us were sure how he was going to deal with the X-Men world. But we’re going to be changing some of the tropes of these movies. It’s always about saving the world (laughs), but maybe we’re going to shift things a liittle but. There’s so many ways you can take [an origin story]. You could do it like Batman Begins, or a different take and go the Guardians Of The Galaxy route. All I can say is, I’m super excited.

Admittedly I'm a lot more pumped about DEADPOOL at the moment, but Channing Tatum's excitement about the project and the very good possibility that GAMBIT will wash away the bad taste of the character's X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE appearance gives me hope that the X-Men film franchise will continue on its recent winning streak.

GAMBIT explodes into theaters on October 7, 2016.