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Looks like things just weren’t in the cards for ‘Gambit’, which would have been Fox’s second attempt to pluck a diamond in the rough from the unsuccessful ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.  The first, of course, is the current box office champ ‘Deadpool’ with Ryan Reynolds, who played a greatly altered version in the first flick.  Then when Channing Tatum expressed interest, Fox attempted to craft a movie around him starring as ‘Gambit’, the shifty mutant thief, taking over from Taylor Kitsch who played him in ‘Origins’.

But the project has been plagued with problems, not the least of which was finding a director.  (‘Edge of Tomorrow’ helmer Doug Liman finally signed on.)  As the film struggled to get off the ground, it became increasingly clear that it would not meet its October 7, 2016 release date.

Things appear to be on track and based on the last reports, ‘Gambit’ is due to begin filming next month, but superhero movies take a long time to make.  There’s no way the whole thing could get shot, edited and enhanced with special effects, not to mention promoted, all within just a few short months.  Think about it; you usually start seeing trailers for movies about a year before their release.  This one isn’t even shooting yet.  So not surprisingly, Fox has made the decision to pull the film.

But they have announced the release dates for two unnamed Marvel films, one roughly a year after Gambit’s ex-release date and one for January, 2018, just a few weeks shy of the date when ‘Deadpool’ exploded this year.

Here are the tweets indicating these changes:

Let the speculation begin.  Will ‘Gambit’ finally get rolling to land that October 2017 date?

What about the second date?  Fox greenlit a sequel to ‘Deadpool’ before the first exploded in theaters and after its unbelievable success, you can bet Fox wants to replicate that ASAP.  And the January date is relatively close to the February date in which the first movie premiered.

Another possibility is ‘The New Mutants’, which we know is in the works, with a completed script (at least one draft), but these dates, especially the 2017 one, might be too snug for it.

A longshot is that ‘Wolverine 3’ is being bumped from its March 3, 2017 date, but that probably would have simply been announced outright.

The news was that Fox has scheduled dates for two “Marvel” films, not necessarily ‘X-Men’.  So one of those could be for ‘Fantastic Four 2’.

Wolverine-Laughing

Okay, no it’s not.

Are you still looking forward to ‘Gambit’?  Or have these delays put you off?  What other X-Men movies would you like to see Fox tackle?

Source: Comic Book Movie