As of right now, file this one under Rumor with a capital R, but, sources are telling the folks at The Wrap that Channing Tatum might be exiting the Gambit movie over at Fox. Currently, Fox has been in the process of testing young actresses to star alongside Tatum (including Lea Seydoux), but it appears that director Rupert Wyatt might soon have to find himself a new leading man, assuming a Gambit movie even happens without Tatum. All may not be lost, as sources are saying that Tatum’s reps are still in active discussions with the studio, but acknowledged that “something is up,†whatever that means.
The entire Gambit movie is happening basically because Channing Tatum kind of willed it into existence. He’s a huge fan of the character and has wanted to play him for years. Longtime X-Men series producers Lauren Schuler Donner and Simon Kinberg worked with Tatum to convince the studio that a Gambit movie was worth making, considering the character only appeared once in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which wasn’t exactly anyone’s favorite mutant movie (and the character hasn’t ever been able to hold his own comic series for very long either for that matter).
Channing Tatum even made an appearance on stage at Comic-Con a few weeks back, taking his bows in Hall H with the other stars of  the Fox/Marvel films like the X-Men, the new Fantastic Four, and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. The team even snapped a Fox/Marvel group selfie that made its way all over the internet. This is also where he was total gentleman and helped an elderly Stan Lee offstage, winning everyone’s hearts.
Would Fox move on with the Gambit movie without Tatum? A similar situatiuon happened last year when Edgar Wright left Ant-Man at Marvel Studios, a movie that only happened because he helped bring that project to life in the first place. While that worked out ok and resulted in a movie that’s been #1 at the box-office for two weeks, does Gambit have the same pull without Tatum? That remains to be seen, but if he does leave, it definitely leaves Fox with a bit of egg on their face after all the publicity they’ve given this movie already.
Gambit is currently scheduled for a release date of October 6, 2016.
HT: The Wrap
