While he's been "attached" forever, Channing Tatum had yet to sign any pieces of paper tying him to the role of the X-Men's Gambit in Fox's attempt to kick off a refreshed X-Universe. You may have seen some tittle-tattle in the last week or so that he wasn't going to be doing it after all, but all that's now been consigned to the gossip dustbin. Tatum has now closed his Gambit deal, meaning he'll don the purple threads and wield the playing cards for director Rupert Wyatt as planned{
Tatum has been personally invested in Gambit for ages. "I’ve been pretty vocal about wanting to be the part of Gambit for a very long time," he told MTV a year ago. "It’s a weird, pinching-myself moment that we’re even having the conversation.”
If there were kinks in the negotiations, they perhaps revolved around the extent of his commitment, and his recompense for such. If Fox are looking for a character to fill the gap Wolverine will leave when Hugh Jackman retires from the role in 2017, Tatum could be staring down more than a decade playing Remy LeBeau.
There's also the question of where and how Gambit will fit into Fox's renegade Marvel universe, after Tatum stood firm about not making a cameo in X-Men: Apocalypse ("No, I definitely will not," he told Reddit).
"We’ve talked about Gambit being a standalone first," said Tatum, again last summer, "and actually trying to change the 'hero' superhero movie. Because Gambit is not your typical hero. He’s a thief. He walks on the grey. I’m hoping we can change it a little bit, and then ultimately feather into the other [X-Men movies].”
Gambit, which has a screenplay by Josh Zetumer (RoboCop), currently has a UK release date of October 7 next year. Which seems like a very tight schedule. X-Men: Apocalypse - definitely minus Gambit - is out on May 18.