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It’s been talked about for a long while, was practically accepted as a done-deal, but last week a spanner was thrown in the works when rumours floated round of Channing Tatum leaving the X-Men world and turning down Fox’s offer of playing Gambit. Thankfully, word has now broken that Channing Tatum has officially signed on to star as Gambit.
The 22 Jump Street star will headline the spin-off film based on one of the most iconic X-Men (the playing-card throwing, stick-wielding, gambler) for director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and could potentially become the X-Men franchise’s new leading man; as Hugh Jackman will be laying down the adamantium claws and playing Wolverine for the last time in 2017.
Apparently still scheduled for release on October 7th next year (though we’d half expect that to change given the scheduling pressure it’d take to complete and release in such a short window), Gambit has been scripted by Josh Zetumer (of the RoboCop remake), but isn’t Fox’s only future venture into the X-Men world; as X-Men: Apocalypse is due for release on May 18th, there’s a new stand-alone Wolverine movie in the works, and even talk of an eventual X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover film in the pipeline.
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
