Channing Tatum Confirmed As Gambit

Channing Tatum has been officially cast as Gambit, the X-Men‘s ragin’ Cajun, for an upcoming spin-off project.

Love him or hate him, X-Men‘s Gambit is a character many fans are clamoring to see on the big screen. Many enjoyed Taylor Kitsch’s portrayal in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it wasn’t exactly a definitive performance. X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner, meanwhile, is convinced that Channing Tatum would be perfect for the role, something she elaborated on last January. Talks to bring Tatum into Fox’s X-Men universe have continued since, and at London’s X-Men: Days of Future Past premiere, Shuler Donner confirmed they were successful: Channing Tatum will officially play the ragin’ Cajun in a future X-Men film.

“It is Channing,” Shuler Donner answered when asked about the Gambit casting. “He’s a rogue, Channing, he’s a rascal, like Remy LeBeau, and he can handle the action, we all know that.”

The plan back in January was to cast Gambit for a standalone movie, something that’s only been done with Wolverine so far (and even then was only successful half of the time). Whether Tatum’s Gambit will also appear in the core X-Men series isn’t clear, but it will depend in part on the success of the upcoming Days of Future Past.

Gambit isn’t be the only X-Men spinoff project currently in the works. During the same interview, Shuler Donner adds that an adaptation for Deadpool is still underway, as is an attempt to bring X-Force to the big screen. X-Force, a secondary X-Men team with a more militant and aggressive outlook, could be a fascinating addition if Fox hopes to expand its canon to match Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Gambit, however, is one that Shuler Donner appears especially passionate about, so we can expect more news to follow in the immediate future.

X-Men: Days of Future Past will premiere stateside on May 23, 2014.

Source: Total Film, via IGN