May 26, 2015
By Graeme McMillan
While trailers for Magic Mike XXL ably demonstrate his near-superhuman physique, Channing Tatum‘s thoughts are turning toward another character with true comic book origins: Gambit, the X-Man he’ll be playing in an X-Men spinoff movie next year.
“Josh Zetumer just turned in the first draft of the script, and it’s killer,” he told Empire magazine (Zetumer’s script is based on a treatment from longtime X-Men comic book writer — and Gambit co-creator — Chris Claremont). “None of us were sure how he was going to deal with the X-Men world. But we’re going to be changing some of the tropes of these movies. It’s always about saving the world (laughs), but maybe we’re going to shift things a little bit.”
Tatum confirmed that the movie will be an origin story, but teased that there are “so many ways” such a story could be handled. “You could do it like Batman Begins, or a different take and go the Guardians of the Galaxy route,” he said. “All I can say is, I’m super excited.”
Of course, Tatum has reason to be excited; the character has long been a favorite of his. “He always felt the most real of the X-Men to me,” he explained, calling Gambit “kind of a tortured soul and […] not a good guy. But he’s not a bad guy, either. He walks his own path. And of course he plays cards and drinks and is a martial-arts badass.”
Gambit is scheduled for release October 2016