‘Gambit’ Reportedly Pulled From Production Schedule for Now

Fox’s Gambit is on hiatus following the departure of director Gore Verbinksi, Omega Underground reports.

The X-Men spinoff was headed for a March start in New Orleans, Lousiana, but has been temporarily pulled for the time being off production schedules.

The site anticipates filming to kick off in the summer under a new director in Montreal, Quebec, which most recently hosted Fox’s production of X-Men: Apocalypse.

Omega Underground had the long-gestating Gambit pegged for a March 19 start date in New Orleans with the Pirates of the Caribbean director, who parted ways with Fox earlier this month.

The split has been deemed an amicable one as result of scheduling issues.

This marks the third time Gambit has been left without a director: Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ Rupert Wyatt and The Bourne Identity‘s Doug Liman both jumped ship, delaying star and producer Channing Tatum‘s Marvel passion project.

Tatum’s involvement is reportedly unaffected by Verbinski’s departure.

Fox recently pushed back Gambit‘s release date from February of next year to June 2019. This most recent delayed production start could push back release even further, despite Fox’s enthusiasm surrounding the project that has long had trouble getting off the ground.

Described as a superpowered heist movie with comedic elements, Gambit is expected to see the ragin’ Cajun caught up in a heist gone bad.

The story will see the kinetically-powered Gambit’s attempts to unite two factions of his adopted family known as the Thieves Guild, who helped turn the card-tossing mutant into a master thief.

“I think we got super, super lucky,” star and producer Channing Tatum said of Gambit’s bumpy road to the big screen. “I think a lot of setbacks, we’ll look at them in hindsight as giant blessings.”

Tatum, who pointed to R-rated Fox productions Deadpool and Logan as teachers, said the movies “knocked down a lot of doors for us to be able to do things that we wanted to do in the first place.”

According to rumored plot details that surfaced in September, Gambit will operate as a spin on Ocean’s Eleven and Romeo & Juliet — with mutants.

Fox will next release the Deadpool sequel in May, followed by X-Men: Dark Phoenix in November.