It’s now confirmed by multiple trades that Gambit has lost its third director as Gore Verbinski claims scheduling issues are the reason behind his exit.
Gore joins Rupert Wyatt and Doug Liman in the group of former Gambit directors. We do expect 20th Century Fox to announce a new director soon or at least names of candidates making their way to the trades soon.
The X-Men films have always had rotten luck keeping directors on their projects.
Kathryn Bigelow was originally set to direct Wolverine and The X-Men in the 90s only for the film to move to Fox with director Bryan Singer. Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn would leave X-Men: The Last Stand to be mangled by Brett Ratner. More recently the moves have been more positive with Vaughn replacing Singer on X-Men: First Class, then Singer replacing Vaughn on X-Men: Days of Future Past. Tim Miller would exit Deadpool 2 only for the studio to nab David Leitch instead.
For the most part, these director shake-ups shouldn’t be panic-inducing but people will no matter what.
Pre-production on the film is in full swing and set to begin filming on March 19th, nothing suggests they’ll push either the production or release dates.
Lizzy Caplan had been in talks for a role but it’s unknown if she’ll actually sign on with Gore’s exit. However, Channing Tatum is reportedly still attached to produce and star.
The release date is still expected to for February 14th, 2019.
SOURCE: DEADLINE