The X-Men Movie Everyone Wants Is A Bad Idea

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 3 days ago

Ever since Channing Tatum stole all of his scenes in Deadpool & Wolverine, fans have been clamoring for him to have a solo Gambit movie. This is only natural. Not only was Tatum hilarious in the recent film, but he was tapped to play the character for Fox even before the MCU began, so belatedly giving him a solo film may seem like a no-brainer. However, it’s just not in the cards, mes ami, and I’m here to tell you why a solo Gambit film is the worst idea since letting Brett Ratner direct X-Men 3.

This Mutant Is Getting Old

Channing Tatum is a talented performer with a genuine passion for the character, so why do I think his having a Gambit movie is a terrible idea? For one thing, the 44-year-old is a bit too old for the part. While it made sense for him to be a bit older as someone trapped in a multiversal Wasteland in Deadpool & Wolverine, fans need to remember that Marvel wants its big stars to sign 10-year contracts. He’s obviously in great shape (just ask Magic Mike fans), but do we really want to see Tatum in his mid-50s trying to keep up with his younger stars?

Speaking of younger stars, it’s worth remembering that Disney is preparing to unleash its merry band of mutants onto the MCU and most of them (besides Wolverine, of course) will be played by youthful actors who are new to their roles. If Rogue is played by someone in her 20s, it would be embarrassingly awkward to have her (Le)beau be someone nearly twice her age.

Gambit Is Not The Ace In The Deck

But let’s say that having another middle-aged guy in the team of youngsters makes sense…even then, Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie is still dead in the water. That’s because Gambit is a bit like the Hulk in that he is best as part of an ensemble where his larger-than-life personality can bounce off of others in fun ways. It’s fun to see him flirt with Rogue or annoy Wolverine, but without the other colorful characters, Gambit is a guy with a barely-decipherable accent and a party trick set of mutant abilities.

And Marvel’s comic writers arguably knew this long before Channing Tatum was being considered for a Gambit movie. Historically, Gambit’s solo comics runs haven’t lasted very long, and his most memorable comics outside of X-Men books have been one-shots where he teams up with characters like Storm and Deadpool. Real talk: if this character can’t sustain enough interest from his biggest fans to keep a solo title going, he will never generate enough interest among general audiences to make a big-budget film into a blockbuster success.

No One Wants This Origin Story

That leads to the last problem with Channing Tatum headlining a Gambit movie: the character’s origin story would be hard to transform into the usual Marvel movie where Disney expects to sell countless action figures and rake in a billion dollars at the box office. A movie about the machinations of the Thieves’ Guild and Assassin’s Guild might have plenty of interesting lore for superfans to consume, but it wouldn’t have the zing general audiences expect from a franchise filled with killer set pieces and countless explosions. Forget about aliens attacking New York…this would be a movie about two-bit thieves backstabbing each other in New Orleans, and that is unlikely to win over moviegoers already reeling from superhero fatigue.

For the record, I think Channing Tatum is an awesome actor, and his performance in Deadpool & Wolverine was one of the highlights of that hit movie. But this is one case where stretching a memorable cameo into an entire solo film would be a terrible idea for many reasons, including that it functionally takes the role from a younger actor who would better gel with the upcoming team of MCU X-Men. And keeping Tatum away from a future Gambit movie has one more benefit which might be the most important of them all: we won’t have to hear an accent so indecipherably thick that it would require subtitles for the entire film.