Channing Tatum Gives GAMBIT Movie Update, Confirms Origin Story
Channing Tatum is currently prepping to join the X-Men cinematic universe as the kinetically charged southern mutant Gambit. From the moment the possibility was thrown out there that Tatum could play Gambit, I was on board. I think the guy could be awesome in the role if the character is handled properly. In the most recent issue of Empire Magazine (via: Comic Book), Tatum shared some information regarding the story and where the development currently stands. First, he talked about his love of the character and how he identifies with him:
"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!"
When talking about the movie itself, he revealed that the film will be an origin story and that the first draft of the script is complete.
"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 little bit. 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."
Zetumer developed the script from a treatment by Gambit creator, and X-Men comics legend, Chris Claremont. That should at least give fans some hope that the movie is headed in the right direction. Gambit is scheduled to open in theaters on October 7th, 2016.