X-Men Producer Explains Why Gambit’s A Romantic Comedy

After years of being stuck in development hell, Fox appears to be finally moving forward with the Gambit solo movie starring Channing Tatum as the Ragin’ Cajun. Though no director’s currently attached – after the likes of Doug Liman and Gore Verbinski walked away – a new vision has been found for the movie which the production team seem pretty keen on.

Previously, Gambit was talked up as a heist film. However, X-Men producer Simon Kinberg recently revealed that it’d been recalibrated as a romantic comedy instead. This took fans by surprise, but while speaking to Screen Rant, Kinberg clarified why the studio came to think that the best thing for the movie was to make it a rom-com. The filmmaker said that it’s all to do with finding a fresh angle for it, much like Logan and Deadpool before it had a “sub-genre” that set them apart.

“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.”

Though you might think that superhero movies and rom-coms are two unlikely genres to mix, Kinberg’s right that Remy LeBeau has always been a lover and a fighter. I mean, his relationship with Rogue is one of the most loved romances in the X-Men comics universe.

That said, from what we gather, Rogue won’t be Gambit’s love interest in the movie but rather, Bella Donna Bourdreaux will be. No word yet on who’s in that role, as presumably Lea Seydoux has moved on from when she was attached to the project years ago, but hopefully we hear more in the near future.

Presumably, the cast and crew will start joining Channing Tatum pretty soon, as Gambit is currently scheduled to begin production in February 2019 ahead of its March 2020 release, and as always, you can watch this space for more.