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

Still, members of the press continue to hound producer Simon Kinberg for details regarding the film, and each time he speaks we seem to get a little closer to production. The Hashtag Show (via Entertainment Weekly) recently caught up with Kinberg at the 2016 Saturn Awards and even managed to narrow him down to a specific season:

“We have a great script on that and hope to shoot that movie at the beginning — or spring — of next year.”

When we last checked in on Kinberg and Gambit, he indicated that there was still work to be done on the script, so the fact that the script is finished — and that Kinberg is seemingly happy with the results after expressing displeasure at the tone of earlier drafts — suggests that Kinberg’s timeline might actually be based in fact for once. Then again, Tatum is in very high demand these days, so the speed with which the project begins production will likely depend on his willingness to make room in a busy schedule.

As the article notes, Gambit does not currently have a release date, but an early 2017 shooting date would likely push the release of the film back into 2018 (unless the good folks at Fox rush it through production, which would just sort of be the icing on the cake of this entire Gambit ordeal). Our interest in the project remains high as long as Channing Tatum is involved, so fingers crossed that this isn’t the final word on Gambit in 2016.

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