Simon Kinberg, longtime X-Men producer and director of Dark Phoenix, has provided a new update regarding 20th Century Fox's planned Gambit spinoff. He explains that film (implicitly alongside the rest of Fox's planned X-Men movies) is currently being "evaluated" by Disney now that the company's acquisition of Fox is complete.

"Since the merger happened, all of the movies at Fox, not just the Marvel movies, are being evaluated," Kinberg said. "And [Disney will] figure out what they want to do with them."

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"I love the idea of Channing [Tatum] playing Gambit," he continued. "I think we have a great script for it and I think it's a role he was born to play. It's a character I grew up loving and I know the fans love. So I suspect, I hope it will happen."

At first glance, Disney effectively putting Gambit into an even deeper state of limbo as the media giant figures out its plans for the X-Men's cinematic future might seem like another devastating blow to the long-gestating film. However, Kinberg's comments suggest that the film is, at the very least, being considered by Disney, seemingly contradicting earlier reports that Gambit, as well as Fox's other planned X-Men spinoffs, had been outright axed ahead of the merger.

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While Tatum has been attached to the film for years, he's been one of the few constants in the film's development. One of the major obstacles the Gambit movie has faced has been its inability to lock down a director, with the likes for Gore Verbinski, Rupert Wyatt and Doug Liman all boarding and subsequently leaving the project. Nevertheless, Tatum and Kinberg have remained optimistic, with some reports suggesting that the former may even be in talks to sit in the director's chair himself.

Since the Disney-Fox merger was first put into motion, the future of the X-Men movies has been one of the most-discussed aspects of the massive media deal. Kinberg's comments seem to finally provide at least part of an answer. While it still seems like Disney plans to send the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kinberg's comments suggest that in-development films like Gambit could at least get a fair shake at eventually hitting the big screen.

(via Variety)