X-Men: Apocalypse's Post-Credits Scene With Mr. Sinister Was Meant to Set Up Channing Tatum's Gambit

If you think all the way back to 2016, there was once a time when X-Men: Apocalypse teased the imminent arrival of iconic X-Men baddie Mr. Sinister. In the post-credits stinger to Apocalypse, representatives of the Nathaniel Essex (Mr. Sinister)-owned Essex Corporation could be seen packing up samples of DNA from a Weapon X facility. The nod, as long-time X-Men producer Simon King Berg now confirms, was supposed to lead directly into Sinister's formal introduction in the 20th Century Fox-produced Gambit feature.

"We had a tease of it at the end of Apocalypse. The Essex Corp is something that you see in a tag at the end of Apocalypse," Kinberg recently said during a watch party for IGN. "We had talked about doing something with him, and I won't get into the specifics of it since it's no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it's part of the MCU. I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum."

That Gambit movie, of course, has since been shelved by Marvel Studios after Disney ended up acquiring it during its merger with Fox. Shortly after the merger, Kinberg confirmed Gambit was still being evaluated by the executives at Disney. The movie was subsequently removed from Disney's release schedule last May.

"All of the movies at Fox are being evaluated," Kinberg told Variety. "I love the idea of Channing playing Gambit. I think we have a great script for it and I think it's a role he was born to play. It's a character I grew up loving and I know the fans love. So I suspect, I hope it will happen. There will be a lot of mixing and merging now and I'm all for it and excited to see."

"I would say probably either somebody from Wakanda or Iron Man. I mean I love Robert, I've worked with him," he added. "I love what he does with that character. I feel like he created the tonal template for the MCU with the first Iron Man movie. And so the notion of Iron Man popping up in X-Men or Iron Man interacting with Deadpool is pretty exciting."

X-Men: Apocalypse is now streaming on Hulu.

Where do you think Gambit will pop up next? If not Tatum, who would you like to see play the mutant? Think it over and let us know your thoughts in the comments section or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!