As Hugh Jackman prepares to exit the X-Men franchise, there is presumably quite a bit riding on Channing Tatum, and whether his exceptional rig and his way with a wisecrack will be enough to make the upcoming Gambit movie a success.
Per a recent interview with Empire, Tatum is already pretty psyched to play Gambit – aka Remy LeBeau – who is able to manipulate pure kinetic energy, and also enjoys throwing cards about.
Old mate clearly seems to have a lot in common with the character, telling the magazine:
“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!”
The script for Gambit apparently has a first draft – probably for the best, considering it’s out in a bit over a year – and though its apparently that most over-used of comic book movie cliches, an origin story, Tatum remains super pumped:
“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.”
Gambit is out in October 2016, and it’s rumoured that Tatum may also make a cameo in X-Men Apocalypse, out May 2016.
Photo: Tommasso Boddi via Getty Images
