Channing Tatum Wants to Direct ‘Gambit’

After numerous false starts and director departures, it seems like Channing Tatum‘s long-planned Gambit movie might be dead in the water after the Disney purchase is complete. But the actor isn’t giving up yet.

According to a new report from Deadline, Tatum has been considering directing the Gambit movie himself after the departures of directors Doug Liman and Gore Verbinski. This comes after news that Tatum has left his longtime representation at UTA and Management 360.

Tatum has long been attached to star in Gambit, featuring the card-throwing, grifting member of the X-Men. But after numerous setbacks plaguing the potential production, many have questioned whether or not the project would actually move forward.

And with Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox and other assets set to be finalized over the next few months, the X-Men characters will soon come under the banner of Marvel Studios, and its unlikely that producer Kevin Feige would follow through with a Gambit movie to kick off a brand new franchise.

But until the purchase is finalized, it’s business as usual for Fox and the X-Men franchise. Producer Simon Kinberg, who also wrote and directed the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, spoke to IGN a few months ago about how plans for the film were still moving forward.

“When you look at Gambit, he’s a hustler and a womanizer and we just felt like there was an attitude, a swagger to him, that lent itself to romantic comedy,” said Kinberg.

That might not sound ideal for most diehard fans of superhero movies, but Kinberg made it clear that it would still be a classic X-Men film that would fit in the genre.

“You know, when I say romantic comedy, I use that term loosely, in the same term that I use the term western for Logan loosely,” Kinberg said. “It’s not like they’re gunslingers at high noon in Logan. It’s just a vibe. And I would say the vibe of Gambit has a romantic or sex comedy vibe to it. While it is also still very much a superhero movie with villains and heroes, as all these movies are.”

There’s no word yet on if Fox is planning to move forward on the Gambit movie or if they’re waiting for the acquisition to be finalized before making more X-Men movies.