Omega Underground has been keeping close tabs on the development and behind the scenes prep for Fox’s X-Men spinoff featuring the raging cajun Gambit. Casting has begun with Lizzy Caplan being the first new cast member linked by a trade for this third incarnation that is expected to begin filming early next year, as suggested by both producers Simon Kinberg and Channing Tatum.
Previously, we’ve uncovered that production would spend a good chunk of time in New Orleans as the studio has already hired location scouts currently working in the city to find locales for Gambit. Logan shot a bunch of scenes in the city and most interiors at Big Easy Studios, so it wouldn’t be the first rodeo for an X-Men film to shoot in the area. The location is also important to the origin of Remy and luckily for Fox has become a film and television production hub. Gambit filming at Big Easy Studios is a good bet to make.
Our friends over at ThatHashtagShow revealed character breakdowns that suggested that Bella Donna is expected to be kept as a Parisian character, along with a laundry list of multiple other characters expected for the film. There is a good chance the film could also spend some time in Europe in locations like Paris, France. That’s if Bella is indeed French in the film.
Thanks to a helpful source with intel on the production of Gambit, Omega Underground has learned when production is expected to begin. Fox and director Gore Verbinski are eyeing a production start in February with a wrap date expected sometime in July. We’ve been expecting the production start to take place in February due to the release date of Valentines Day 2019, but this is the first bit of production date information we’ve been able to get a hold of since Gore’s announcement as director.
Keep in mind, production dates can be in-flux when casting and crew aren’t 100% set (nobody has been officially cast besides Tatum). We’ve seen with our own reporting on Venom that dates can change because of multiple factors. Venom went from a start in early September to almost the end of October. Yet, it’s an excellent guideline before we can confirm things.
This does squash any talk that Gambit will get another delay as it’s now eyeing an actual production start soon.
Who Lizzy Caplan is playing is a bit of mystery at the moment. As none of the trades have been able to uncover what her role actually is. We do know that Remy’s wedding with Bella Donna will be in the film in some form. However, that doesn’t give us any indication if Lizzy is playing her or another character we’ve learned there are multiple female roles in the film.
Nothing has pointed towards the studio rebooting Rogue for the film, but not unlike Remy she has a criminal past before joining the X-Men starting out as a thief herself in Mystique’s incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This would be the perfect opportunity to add her as hired muscle for a competing crew and possibly tease their future pairing.
Another bit of intel from SplashReport revealed that there’s a good chance Multiple Man aka Jamie Madrox might be appearing in the film and possibly part of Remy’s crew.
James Franco is currently attached for the role of Madrox and has worked with Lizzy Caplan on a bunch of projects like The Interview and 127 Hours going back to the days of Freaks and Geeks, he also apparently once auditioned for the Gambit role years ago himself. There is a good chance we could see Madrox in the film which could help establish a link to Multiple Man’s solo film and possibly even X-Factor/X-Force movies. Franco and Tatum crossed paths during the filming of This Is The End, which was shot in New Orleans. It’s hard to ignore James Franco is friendly with both Caplan and Channing, the two have also worked with James’ brother Dave Franco in films like 21 Jump Street and Now You See Me 2.
We think there’s a strong possibility that Franco will join the cast too.
As previously mentioned Gambit (working title Forevermore) is set for release on February 14th, 2019.
SOURCE: OMEGA UNDERGROUND