- Lizzy Caplan was set to star alongside Channing Tatum before Gambit was scrapped in 2019
- The merger of Disney and Fox brought an end to the movie happening
- Tatum eventually got to play Gambit in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine
Lizzy Caplan has revealed details of how a Channing Tatum-led Gambit movie would have looked, had it not been cancelled in 2019.
Caplan was announced to be co-starring alongside Tatum in a Gambit film back in 2017. But the X-Men character’s standalone soiree never materialised. The 2019 merger between Disney and Fox put an end to any hopes of production commencing and that was that.
However, eight years on from the initial cast announcement, Caplan has been sharing details of what the movie was set to look like, in a recent interview with Business Insider.
“They wanted to do, like, a ’30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in that world, which would have been really fun.”
The Fox and Disney merger could really not have happened at a worse time for the project, as Caplan revealed in the same interview just how close they were to beginning shooting.
“We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it. I think there was a start date. I had had meetings with Channing, and there were a couple different… we had a director, then we didn’t, but I had multiple meetings with Channing and the other producers.”
Of course, Tatum would eventually make an appearance on the big screen as Gambit in last year’s record breaking Deadpool & Wolverine, which became the highest grossing R-Rated movie of all time. It was an opportunity the Magic Mike star was eternally grateful for, as he expressed his gratitude towards Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, and director Shawn Levy, in a lengthy post on X.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But he fought for me and Gambit. I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.
“@ShawnLevyDirect as well. Truly such a brilliant creator on every single level. All things happen for a reason. I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater. LFG!!”
These pictures are almost 10 years apart to the day. I sat in the audience when Ryan Reynolds showed his first peek of Deadpool 1 to the world and I think I ran back stage right after and found him and I think I just hugged him and was like holy shit you did it man. It’s perfect.… pic.twitter.com/B5viY2f7nl
— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) July 30, 2024
Credit to Tatum. We know how long he’d been waiting for it. And he certainly made a name for himself.
