Channing Tatum’s Gambit origin movie has been in development at Fox for several years. It was supposed to start filming in 2015 for a 2016 release but with the departure of several directors; the timetable kept being pushed further and further back. To eventually Fox taking it off their current slate of films altogether. However, longtime X-Men producer Simon Kinberg did reveal he hopes to start filming Gambit sometime in 2018. With Channing Tatum himself mentioning in July the film is still in development.
So now Splash Report has revealed that have gotten their hands on the current iteration of the script which is said to be an “Oceans Eleven-esque heist film set within the X-Men universe”. The film includes Rictor, Fifolet, Dani Moonstar, Multiple Man, Marrow, and a “blue X-Men regular” (presumably Mystique, Beast, or Nightcrawler). With reference to X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse:
Remy Lebeau (Channing Tatum) is on trial in New-Orleans. He’s considered a huge security risk. We flashback to almost 25 years before. Master thief Luke Lebeau runs into eight-year-old Gambit while doing a heist. Impressed by his skills, he offers to take the mutant orphan under his wings. Raised alongside other strays he calls “cousins”, the teenage Gambit becomes the superstar of the Thief Guild. He encounters Bella Donna Boudreaux while on the run from the police. Sparks immediately fly since Bella is also a fellow mutant. Their love is directly prohibited by both families since the Boudreaux are sworn enemies of the Lebeau clan. Deciding to unite the two sides, Remy offers to have the two clans team up on a HUGE heist to profit both families. Of course, the whole plan goes awry, and in the chaos, Maryanne Boudreaux shoots and kill Luke Lebeau.
We jump to 10 years later; Gambit is hired to do a job in Paris to steal something from the Louvre Museum. It was apparently a test job to see if he still has it. His mysterious employer is revealed to be Nathaniel Essex a.k.a. Mr. Sinister. He offers Gambit 40 million to recover a mysterious trunk that was stolen by the Boudreaux clan. It will be auctioned off during the yearly Thieves Ball where all the criminal organizations in the world meet up. It uses New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations as a cover. Gambit decides to enlist a crew of mutants to pull off this seemingly impossible heist…
We shall see if this film ever gets off the ground. But first, they need to find a replacement director up to the task.
Gambit has no set release date