Channing Tatum Confirmed As Gambit

[Fanghawk]

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, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131845-X-Men-Producer-Wants-Channing-Tatum-For-Gambit>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 href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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: <a href=http://www.totalfilm.com/news/lauren-shuler-donner-confirms-channing-tatum-gambit-casting>Total Film, via <a href=http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/05/13/channing-tatum-confirmed-as-gambit>IGN

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[Scribblesense]

Taylor Kitsch has the worst luck, huh? Decent actor, but two out of three of his blockbuster performances have been gargantuan flops (X-Men Origins made a ton of money, if I recall).

Not sold on Tatum as Gambit - he seems like more of a self-aware frat boy than a dashing rogue, but with the right direction he could pull it off.

 

[Ruisu]

X-Force, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Force>a secondary X-Men team with a more militant and aggressive outlook, could be a fascinating addition if Sony hopes to expand its canon to match Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

Fox. You mean if Fox hopes to expand it's canon.

 

[bdcjacko]

X-Force, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Force>a secondary X-Men team with a more militant and aggressive outlook, could be a fascinating addition if Sony hopes to expand its canon to match Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

Fox. You mean if Fox hopes to expand it's canon.

yeah, Sony screws up Spider-Man

 

[Fanghawk]

X-Force, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Force>a secondary X-Men team with a more militant and aggressive outlook, could be a fascinating addition if Sony hopes to expand its canon to match Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

Fox. You mean if Fox hopes to expand it's canon.

I did, it's fixed.

 

[TheMemoman]

He seems too potato-headed doesn't he?

 

[Guffe]

I don't know too much about Gambit other than that in a fighting game on the GameCube or Nintendo64, and in the animated kids show on TV I absolutely loved the character

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Oh my God! This is the best news I've heard this year. Who can I throw money at to make this happen? Someone, please take it.

I'm gonna be living in the cinema, buying it on every conceivable format and going through a considerable amount of soiled underwear if and when this happens.

Yeah, this is seriously damn exciting. My favourite XMan (and indirectly, my Internet handles namesake) on the big screen will make very happy indeed. If only JCVD was 20 years younger, he would've been the best choice.

 

[Remus]

I predict Gambit in Age of Apocalypse. Time travel after all, and if there's a post-credit scene in DoFP I'm hoping for an appearance by Ozymandias or perhaps a big blue boot walking over the ruins of an army of sentinels.

 

[shiajun]

Gambit is my favorite X-men, it the avatar isn't a give away. But frankly, I don't think Channing Tatum is the right guy. He may handle the action, but a lot of actors can, and if they can't there's always doubles or CGI. Gambit's appeal is his suave, lurky, never quite readable attitude, but underneath that is a very loyal, self aware and heroic guy. Or at least, that's how I've read him all this time. I'm not too sure Tatum has the acting chops to portray that simultanous complexity, let alone as a lead role. It's a problem with the character himself, and why many pens over at Marvel have had trouble using the character well.

Plus, you know, he looks nothing like Gambit is usually portrayed, is too bulky, and doesn't have the athletic yet lean body type the Cajun sports.

EDIT: Seeing some pictures...that last point of mine is not quite true, but I'm still not sold on him.

 

[Elfgore]

I don't imagine it as a good fit. I always think of Gambit as devilish rouge, you know, long hair, sarcastic way of speaking, and a joker. So pretty much the exact opposite of Tatum. Tatum is a good actor, but I don't see this as I good fit. I'll wait before I pass final judgement.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Gambit is my favorite X-men, it the avatar isn't a give away. But frankly, I don't think Channing Tatum is the right guy. He may handle the action, but a lot of actors can, and if they can't there's always doubles or CGI. Gambit's appeal is his suave, lurky, never quite readable attitude, but underneath that is a very loyal, self aware and heroic guy. Or at least, that's how I've read him all this time. I'm not too sure Tatum has the acting chops to portray that simultanous complexity, let alone as a lead role. It's a problem with the character himself, and why many pens over at Marvel have had trouble using the character well.

Plus, you know, he looks nothing like Gambit is usually portrayed, is too bulky, and doesn't have the athletic yet lean body type the Cajun sports.

EDIT: Seeing some pictures...that last point of mine is not quite true, but I'm still not sold on him.

I'm with you on most of this. I LOVED Kitsch as Gambit. Yeah the accent could use a lot of work but he really tried. Tatum's good in SOME things. He's good for rom com. He's good for comedy. He was absolute shit in G.I. Joe (of course some of that was because he didn't want to be in it and only took the part cause his friends encouraged him or something like that). I can see him in an action movie. I CAN'T see him as Gambit.

And honestly I can't wait until Fox's contract for hoarding X-Men runs out and Marvel/Disney snatches X-Men back up. This is one of those few instances in which I'm very much counting on Disney's greed to take over and will be elated over it. And hopefully they'll get Spiderman away from Sony too. And hopefully it will happen before Fox so utterly and completely destroys X-Men that there's practically no coming back from it. Though I think we're getting to that point. -sighs-

[sub][sub][sub][sub]I have a lot of feelings about x-men particularly gambit he's kinda always been my favourite character so I'm going to go cry over this decision and then drink a bunch of alcohol to hopefully forget and watch the original cartoon series I grew up with[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[medv4380]

If only they can fit in a last minute scene in the credits of Days of Future Past with Bishop going to go see the last surviving X-man. They probably couldn't fit it in, but it would be a nice tease for a Gambit movie.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Question is.......well he look like Gambit? Especially knowing that none of the xmen have their comic book costumes. Well, apart from Professor X and Magneto. If Gambit looked like he does in that article picture it would be awesome.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Not sure about this one. I suppose I could see him maybe looking like Gambit given the right workout regimen and costuming, but I can't see him sounding like Gambit at all.

 

[medv4380]

Not sure about this one. I suppose I could see him maybe looking like Gambit given the right workout regimen and costuming, but I can't see him sounding like Gambit at all.

He shows a bit of an accent in this interview, and has has a bit of family background from the area.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Do not screw this up. Gambit is a great character when he's written well and given depth. However, if you just focus on his rogue charm and sarcasm, you will gut the character and remove what makes Gambit into Gamit.

Get it right though, and we shall have an amazing movie. Hopefully.

 

[Dirty Apple]

This is a terrible nitpick and I've never noticed it before, but "Labeau" isn't grammatically correct. The word "beau" is masculine in nature. Therefore, it should either be "LeBeau" or "LaBelle." I'm sorry I just had to get that off my chest.

O.T: Gambit was always one of the more interesting characters in the pantheon. I'm just concerned that there may not be enough story for an off-shot. Granted my experience with X-men is limited to the Saturday morning cartoon that ran in the 90's.

Please feel free to correct me on either of the comments I've made.

 

[shiajun]

This is a terrible nitpick and I've never noticed it before, but "Labeau" isn't grammatically correct. The word "beau" is masculine in nature. Therefore, it should either be "LeBeau" or "LaBelle." I'm sorry I just had to get that off my chest.

O.T: Gambit was always one of the more interesting characters in the pantheon. I'm just concerned that there may not be enough story for an off-shot. Granted my experience with X-men is limited to the Saturday morning cartoon that ran in the 90's.

Please feel free to correct me on either of the comments I've made.

But it is LeBeau. I think there's a typo in the article, or the woman doing the casting doesn't even know how to spell the character's name.

My feeling about this is that the casting went the opposite way of how it should be. They saw "Channing Tatum" as a hot, popular star and said "we need him in our movies" and then went to see what role they could fit him in. They saw "southern" in Gambit's profile and went ka-ching. I think they'll try to go all sarcastic and snarky because that's in, like the portrayal of character's like House. However, Gambit was never snarky, he was smooth and sophisticated with his comebacks. That's kind of his thing. His thieving ways depend on him being able to con someone and that person actually feeling like they're lucky to have met the guy. Tatum is simply way too vanilla and cookie cutter. He hasn't got the "spark" to bring to the character, or has not shown it in any of his roles. I think the creative choices are evidenced when they say they want to go "gritty" for an X-force movie, the obvious question being "Why?".

For the records, there's tons of backstory from Gambit's history to make a movie. He had several runs of a solo comic, plus years of plots in the main X-men comics. He's the perfect vehicle to bring a villain like Mr. Sinister into the movies, but somehow I don't they'd be that smart.