Tatum’s Gambit Spinoff Update

It’s official – Channing Tatum has signed on to star as the card-savvy mutant with “Robocop” writer Josh Zetumer slatted to pen the adaptation for Fox.

Earlier this year, producers announced they were indeed casting Channing Tatum as Remy LeBeau, better known by his X-Man moniker Gambit. Back then, it wasn’t clear whether he would be appearing in “X-Men: Apocalypse” or if he would get his own, stand-alone movie.

It now looks like the latter: According to Deadline, the X-Men spinoff movie featuring Gambit is on track, but has not yet been given a release date. “X-Men: Days of Future Past’s” Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner will produce, with Tatum’s “Magic Mike” collaborator Reid Carolin.

The screenplay will be based on a treatment penned by legendary Marvel Comics writer Chris Claremont, who created the character with Jim Lee for Marvel in 1990. The storyline is currently being kept under wraps.

The character, which also goes by the name Remy LeBeau, has the ability to charge matter with volatile kinetic energy, causing the object in question to explosively release its charge on impact.

The character materialized in a short burst in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” played by Taylor Kitsch.

Prior to his casting, Tatum expressed his hopes to portray Gambit in a film one day because he and the character have Southern roots in common.

“There are a lot of superheroes out there. I’d like to play Gambit,” he told Total Film last year. “Because I’m from New Orleans, around that area, and my dad’s from New Orleans, and I like to do the Cajun accent.”

“Gambit was always like the woman-loving, cigarette-smoking, drinking — you know, he was the punk rock of all the superheroes,” he added.

The studio has not yet set a release date for the film, though Gambit is expected to follow the character’s debut in 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse.”