After six years in development hell, the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum seems to have been officially canned. Disney just came out with a film slate spanning 60 movies to be released over the course of nine years including a new Star Wars trilogy and the highly-anticipated Avatar films. The long-gestating X-Men spinoff is notably absent.
The film was originally set for a March 13, 2020 release, but that date is no longer listed. Only two films are set for release around that time, which are Onward and the live-action Mulan film. With almost a decade of films in place, it is looking more and more like the Tatum vehicle is not going anywhere. If Disney still plans for the Gambit movie, the project might not be revisited until after a decade.
There has been a lot of promising news lately about the Gambit movie, which makes the purported cancellation even more frustrating to fans even though it was always a possibility. There were rumors about production kicking off this year with X-Men vet Simon Kinberg even teasing that they were going for a "romantic or sex comedy" vibe.
From the get-go, Tatum has shown enthusiasm for the character and the movie. Even before he signed on to play the role, he was already a huge fan of the character. "Gambit was always like the woman-loving, cigarette-smoking, drinking [guy]. He was the punk rock of all the superheroes," he said back in 2013.
While his keen interest ultimately landed him the job, the film wasn't able to keep a director and writers on board. It was also marred by scheduling conflicts, so it was pushed back again and again. Following the acquisition of Fox, Disney didn't seem to want to waste time to put the film out of its misery.
So far, it appears that from the list of comic book properties that Disney acquired from the mega-deal, only the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Deadpool are guaranteed to go on, which means we might finally see the characters pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether Gambit will be adapted anew in the MCU at some point remains to be seen.
Two other previously announced 2020 release dates plus a 2021 date have also been removed from Disney's slate.
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