Gambit

Although X-Men: Apocalypse and the latest Fantastic Four reboot were fairly notable disappointments for 20th Century Fox, the studio is doing pretty, pretty, prett-ay good in the Marvel department. Thanks to the critical and commercial success of Deadpool and Logan, Fox’s X-universe has been revitalized, and even if the next X-Men movie underperforms, they still have New Mutants, X-Force and Deadpool 2 on the way — and it looks as though that may be the tip of the iceberg.

Fox’s Gambit movie seems perpetually stuck in development hell, occasionally offering hope in fits and starts as directors and actors sign on and then leave for greener pastures before production ever gets underway. Channing Tatum is still on board, but the film, once again lacks a director. Doug Liman, who took over the project for some time after Rupert Wyatt left, recently explained exactly why he decided Gambit wasn’t for him.

News of Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie has become redundant, what with all the times it was allegedly going to “begin filming early next year.” Today, X-Men series producer and writer Simon Kinberg offers another update on the delayed spinoff, assuring fans that it’s still very much in development and they have every intention of hopefully, maybe, possibly filming it next year — but hey, ask again in six months and we’ll see what’s up then.

When you hear talk of the standalone Gambit movie, most — well, pretty much all — of it has the word “delay” in there somewhere. The movie started off strong: Channing Tatum signed on for the title character, it had a director, and everything looked good. Then, the first delay happened, it lost director Rupert Wyatt, got a new one, and was delayed some more. But fans of the trickster need not lose hope yet: X-Men producer Laura Schuler Donner says Tatum is still signed on to do a standalone Gambit movie in the future. We just don’t know when.

The future was looking bright for the X-Men franchise after Bryan Singer revived it with First Class, but after this summer’s Apocalypse, it’ll take a lot to get the mutants back on their feet. The upcoming Wolverine solo joint Logan will see Hugh Jackman comb his hair into ears for one last ride, but after that it’s anyone’s game. Today, we hear there’s a new X-Men movie shooting sometime next spring, but which one is it?

It may be difficult to believe in light of the 2016 election results, but there is other news still happening out there — even in the world of film, which offers a welcome distraction for many right now. And 20th Century Fox is serving up some pretty major news today, with a report that sheds light on the studio’s plans for the future of their expanding X-Men franchise, including Deadpool 3, X-Force and Gambit.

Simon Kinberg must have been feeling pretty chatty this past weekend. After weighing in on the screenplay for Deadpool 2 and all the superhero and sequel jokes the movie could make, Kinberg also opened up on the never-ending production delays faced by the studio’s long-awaited Gambit standalone film. And if you’ve been following the Gambit production for years and can’t take the stress, don’t worry: the film is still happening, it’s just not quite where anyone wants it to be yet.

Some movies just seem destined to never get made. It’s been two-and-a-half years now since people first reported that those Channing Tatum rumors surrounding Gambit had some basis in fact, and while many comic books fans are excited to see the lovable Cajun rapscallion get his own movie, it seems that the production rumors and casting and hiring process was doomed to spin on well past the point where Tatum was young enough to still play an action hero.

When Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men adventure was screened for critics a few weeks ago, there was no post-credits scene attached to the end of the movie. In fact, several of the critics at the New York screening booed loudly after they sat through the entire closing credits only to find... absolutely nothing at the end. But now that the movie is out in theaters internationally ahead of its U.S. debut next week, it’s clear that there is a post-credits scene that was held back from early screenings. Sneaky, sneaky. If you can’t wait and want to know what’s in the scene, here are the details.

It’s been a bit of a bumpy road for Gambit, the X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum as the eponymous mutant. After losing director Rupert Wyatt and replacing him with Doug Liman, Fox removed nixed the film’s release date with little explanation, leaving fans to wonder if Gambit would still happen at all. In a new interview, producer Simon Kinberg confirms that the project is still moving forward and offers a bit of optimism while explaining the delay.