Channing Tatum officially signs on for Gambit movie

Magic Mike is playing with cards

Despite all of last week's rumors, Channing Tatum has officially signed on to play Gambit in the upcoming X-Men spinoff film, The Hollywood Reporter claims.

The film will be directed by Rise of the Planet of the Apes helmer Rupert Wyatt with a script from Josh Zetumer, based on a treatment by the character’s co-creator Chris Clarement, and produced by Tatum himself, his producing partner Reid Carolin, and X-Men franchise producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.

One reason why the deal might've taken so long was because Fox sees Gambit as one of the anchored characters in the X-Men universe, similar to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. Theoretically, the deal could last over a large span of time, which would have Tatum jumping from solo Gambit movies to X-Men featured titles. I guess we're going to have to wait and see how much Fox decides to use Tatum in their upcoming movies. 

2016 will be a big year for the X-Men universe and their fans. Starting off the year, we have Deadpool on February 15, 2016, followed by X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27, 2016. We can expect to see Gambit hit later the same year on October 7th, 2016. Let us know it the comments below if your excited to see Tatum bring Gambit to life on the big screen!