Lizzy Caplan nearly starred alongside Channing Tatum in Gambit. However, the film was canceled after the merger of Disney and Fox in 2019.
Caplan recently spoke about the “cool” plans for the X-Men spinoff movie centered around Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit.
“It was a really cool idea,” Caplan told Business Insider. “It’s kind of odd that it got scrapped. Those movies don’t seem to ever get scrapped, but it did.”
News of Caplan joining Gambit broke in 2017, and the actress admits that she signed on for the project. Caplan even met with Tatum to discuss the movie’s story, which would have surprised many people.
“We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it,” Caplan recalled. “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.”
Caplan added, “They wanted to do like a ’30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in that world, which would have been really fun.”
Talks of Tatum playing the card-throwing mutant began in the late 2000s. However, Taylor Kitsch first appeared as the live-action Gambit in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Tatum later signed on for a Gambit movie in 2014. The project then suffered a series of setbacks and brought on several directors, including Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, and Gore Verbinski. The project never materialized, and the 2019 merger killed the spinoff.
After years of never playing the character, Tatum finally received his wish and appeared as Gambit in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Tatum’s character received rave reviews, and Ryan Reynolds revealed Marvel’s obsession with the crafty mutant.
“I honestly don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in the bookkeeping sessions at Marvel, but I do know that they’re obsessed with him in that role,” Reynolds told EW. “It’s kind of like the same situation I went through. Once you show that it works well, that’s really what they need. Sometimes they just need to see it in action.”
