An X-MEN spin-off film centering around Remy LeBeau has been in the works for a number of years, but time and time again, the project has been delayed. GAMBIT was originally to be directed by Rupert Wyatt (RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES), but he later departed the project due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Doug Liman (EDGE OF TOMORROW). The film was initially set to kick off production this March, but due to all the delays and shuffling behind-the-scenes, Fox actually removed GAMBIT from their schedule. While speaking with Flickering Myth, X-MEN franchise producer Simon Kinberg commented on why GAMBIT was delayed.
We’ve got to get the script right. We just didn’t get the script to the place where we all thought the movie deserved. So we’re still working on the script. We’re very close, actually, to being done with the script. And the hope is that Channing [Tatum] has a couple of movies he has to shoot, but that we would shoot at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year.
Simon Kinberg said that GAMBIT is "looking really good" at the moment and that a valuable lesson was learned thanks to DEADPOOL, namely, getting the tone and the voice of the character correct.
If I ask you what your favourite movies are, you’re not going to tell me about the plot. You’re going to tell me you love this character. And so what we’ve really tried to do with Gambit is make sure that we get the voice of that character right and the tone of the comics 100% on the page. It’s a very unique tone. It’s unique from Deadpool, it’s unique from the X-Men. It’s a heist movie that we’ve never done in these kinds of films before. He’s a con-man. And so that’s really where we’ve spent our time.
Rushing a script into production in order to meet a release date is unfortunately all too common of an occurrence, so I'm thankful that Fox realized that they needed to hit the brakes on GAMBIT in order to get the script in order. Simon Kinberg is hoping that GAMBIT will be able to follow in DEADPOOL's footsteps and become "the start of a new franchise within the X-Men universe."
The next film in the X-MEN franchise, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, is due to hit theaters on May 27, 2016.