Channing Tatum’s ‘Gambit’ movie loses ‘Apes’ director Rupert Wyatt

Looks like it may be a little bit longer until we see Channing Tatum flipping cards with a Cajun accent as the X-Men hero Gambit. The standalone mutant movie has parted ways with director Rupert Wyatt of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” fame.

Hero Complex can confirm that Wyatt is no longer attached to the “Gambit” project, as originally reported by Deadline. And Wyatt has released this statement, via Fox:

“I was very much looking forward to working with my friend Channing and the team at Fox, but regrettably a push in the start date now conflicts with another project. I thank them for the opportunity, and I know that Gambit will make a terrific film.”

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Fox has wanted a Gambit spinoff movie since 2014 when producer Lauren Schuler Donner name dropped the oddly beloved mutant as a potential standalone film. Shortly after Tatum also put out the word via press mentions that he would go all in for the mutant movie. And eventually it all came together, Tatum even popped by the Fox presentation at this year’s Comic-Con to remind everyone that the “Gambit”movie is happening.

But now Wyatt is gone and “Gambit” is directorless. However Fox is still moving ahead with the project to begin in 2016, which likely means a new director will be hired shortly. Finding another mutant to build a franchise around makes sense for Fox; there’s only so long Hugh Jackman can play the immortal, never-aging Wolverine. No matter how good he looks doing it.