Though many of us are beginning to lose interest in the big screen adventures of Professor Xavier and his mutant team, the X-Men universe has still managed to keep on the good side of fans with spinoff works like Logan and the Deadpool movies, and it’s apparently producer Simon Kinberg’s intention for Gambit to serve as one more offshoot of this superhero saga.
Speaking to Screen Rant at NYCC, the director or the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix argued that the long-delayed Gambit flick is more of a standalone work than another installment in the core drama of this franchise.
“I think with the standalone movies, meaning Logan and Deadpool. Not mainline, X-Men movies, one of the things we’ve strived to do is sort of create a sub-genre within the genre of the superhero movie. Obviously Deadpool was like a R-rated comedy. Logan was very much a western. And, so we talked a lot about who Gambit is. And it’s always motivated by the character. We talked a lot about who Gambit is as a character and the things that Channing [Tatum] relates to in the character. And so obviously he’s a thief, obviously you know his superpowers, those things are going to be very present and prevalent in the movie. But he’s also a scoundrel, and a rascal, and a womanizer, and a lot of other things that we felt like we could explore in his relationships with women and one of the genres that is underserviced genre now is the romantic comedy.”
This rom-com idea certainly sounds like a unique twist on the superhero movie genre, but at the rate that work’s progressing on Gambit, it remains a point of debate whether this film will even see the light of day.
A few weeks ago, for instance, the feature suffered the latest in a long line of delays, prompting Kinberg himself to admit that even he understands why so many of us are feeling cynical about the project’s future. The wider context of the X-Men franchise, meanwhile, offers few encouraging signs, with Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants also having their dates pushed back amidst reports of difficulties behind the scenes. The only planned entry in this cinematic universe that doesn’t appear to be saddled with setbacks is Drew Goddard’s X-Force film, though even that movie’s director seems unsure of how the impending Disney-Fox deal could complicate matters.
All that being said, if all goes as planned from here on out for Gambit, then you could see this mutant rom-com in cinemas from March 13th, 2020.