Channing Tatum To Play Gambit In Stand-Alone X-Men Film (original) (raw)

Channing Tatum has officially landed the role of Gambit, aka Remy LeBeau, in an upcoming X-Men spin-off film, a source close to the production has confirmed to BuzzFeed.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has been overseeing the X-Men films since the franchise kicked off in 2000, confirmed the casting to Total Film at the U.K. premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past, putting to rest a month's worth of speculation after Tatum himself said that he was in talks with Donner for the role of the popular Cajun card shark at the MTV Movie Awards.

But the role will not be for X-Men: Apocalypse, the sequel to Days of Future Past which is already slated for release in 2016. Instead, Tatum will headline his own Gambit spin-off movie. That film has no set release date — nor does it have a screenplay or director. But in March, Fox did claim dates for a slew of comic book films, including a new Wolverine movie and the sequel to the unreleased Fantastic Four reboot. One of those dates, July 13, 2018, was reserved for a untitled Marvel Comics film, so it may be a while yet before we see Tatum tossing supercharged playing cards as Cajun thief Gambit.

Reporting by Jarett Wieselman