Channing Tatum’s ambition to bring his rendition of Gambit to the big screen never quite took off, but there’s some intriguing insight from one of the film’s would-be stars about what that X-Men movie might have been like.
By now, it’s no secret how eager Tatum was to embody the X-Men’s Gambit. Despite catching a break by playing the character in Deadpool & Wolverine last year, Tatum’s enthusiasm for a standalone Gambit film remains unquenched. Unfortunately, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet to fully embrace a broader X-Men storyline—even with mutants now part of the broader narrative—a dedicated Gambit film seems improbable. Not to mention, a TV adaptation doesn’t appear likely at this point, either. However, although the Gambit project was shelved, Lizzy Caplan, who was set to star alongside Tatum, recently offered some intriguing details about the movie in a chat with Business Insider.
Reflecting on the project, Caplan remarked, “It was a really cool idea. It’s kind of odd that it got scrapped. Those movies don’t seem to ever get scrapped, but it did.” Back in 2017, Caplan was poised for a leading role, although her character was never publicly revealed. During the interview, she noted the project had progressed enough for her to have discussions with Tatum and the team. “We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it. I think there was a start date. I had had meetings with Channing, and there were a couple different… we had a director, then we didn’t, but I had multiple meetings with Channing and the other producers.”
What would have been truly unique about this film was its planned setting—a ‘30s style screwball romantic comedy woven into the superhero genre. Caplan shared her enthusiasm, musing, “It would have been really fun.” This approach would have stood out, given the often formulaic nature of superhero films that sometimes lean more towards fulfilling genre expectations rather than experimenting with different cinematic flavors.
Despite it all, this vision of the film may remain an unrealized dream, especially considering the somewhat uniform direction of Marvel projects nowadays. Still, fans hold out hope that perhaps one day, Tatum might don the Gambit persona again, complete with his signature over-the-top accent.
