Channing Tatum’s Gambit Movie Was Intended To Be Set Up by X-Men: Apocalypse!

Phillip Pratt |

May 29, 2020

Some time ago I read the 2015 Gambit script in its entirety and then shared the gist of it with all of you. Because I’m nice like that. You can read it here.

It was a story set in the past that traversed three decades landing in the 1980s. Very much an origin story, it also included the film debut of several X-Men characters – including Mister Sinister.

Channing Tatum’s Gambit Movie Was Intended to Be Set Up by X-Men: Apocalypse!

While it indeed would have been the first time we saw Nathaniel Essex on screen – it wouldn’t have been the first time he was mentioned in a movie. The end credit scene of 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse displayed men visiting the Weapon-X facility in which Wolverine escaped from during the film.

Walking through silent hallways, the business suit-clad men pass by workers cleaning up spent bullet casings and mopping up the spilled blood of soldiers. Finally, they arrive in a lab where they begin to collect specimens from refrigerated containment units. The scene concludes as they place the gathered samples into a case with the name “Essex Corp.” engraved on it.

Channing Tatum’s Gambit Movie Was Intended to Be Set Up by X-Men: Apocalypse!

This turned out to be an aimless Easter Egg as the “cinematic” universe fell into disarray upon the Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox. If the X-Men films had continued as intended Mister Sinister was seemingly planned to be included in all films going forward – including one that never got shot – Channing Tatum’s Gambit.

IGN reported while participating in a watch party of X-Men: Days of Future Past, former Fox X-Men franchise producer, Simon Kinberg, let it spill that the pre-described scene was meant to set up Gambit.

“We had a tease of it at the end of Apocalypse… We had talked about doing something with him, and I won’t get into the specifics of it since it’s no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it’s part of the MCU. I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum.”

If you remember from the script breakdown – Mister Sinister played a huge part in the story. The Gambit movie was set to conclude after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse – that being mid to late 1980s.

The script described the fall-out from Magneto’s attack on the planet’s magnetic field (large portions of New Orleans had been left flooded). Presumably, it would have allowed Gambit to make an appearance alongside the X-Men in later films. Namely, Dark Phoenix.

With rumors of Mister Sinister washing up on the shores of Disney’s new cinematic empire – this may be more than Kinberg doing his normal hyper-excited jive. Sinister is a fan favorite and an extremely flexible character that could easily fit into a new or a pre-established universe.

Some of the use that was intended for the Fox franchise may very well end up in the MCU’s take on the X-Men. Who knows? Maybe that’s the role Giancarlo Esposito is really up for?

Well, what do you think? Would you have been up for what Fox had planned for Gambit and Mister Sinister? Let us know below.