Lizzy Caplan has revealed new details about the abandoned Gambit film, which was originally set to star Channing Tatum. The project, announced in 2017, was intended as a standalone film focused on the X-Men character.
Caplan, who was in talks to co-star, shared that the film had advanced significantly before being scrapped. “We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it,” she said in an interview with Business Insider. “I think there was a start date. I had had meetings with Channing, and there were a couple different… we had a director, then we didn’t, but I had multiple meetings with Channing and the other producers.”
The film was planned with a different tone compared to most superhero projects. “They wanted to do, like, a ’30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in that world, which would have been really fun,” Caplan said.
The Gambit film, based on the Marvel Comics character created by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, would have been the second live-action portrayal of the character. The mutant first appeared on screen in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, played by Taylor Kitsch.
The project was shelved following the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, though Tatum later had the chance to portray Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine. After years of hoping to play the character, he credited Ryan Reynolds for making it happen. “I thought I had lost Gambit forever,” Tatum posted on X. “But Ryan fought for me and Gambit. I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.”
Caplan reflected on the experience and admitted she wasn’t entirely comfortable with taking on a superhero role at the time. “I had a lot of stress about doing that kind of movie even then. So now I’m pretty OK not doing one of those movies. I can hear my manager screaming in the other room,” she said.
