The Scrapped Gambit Movie Would Have Been 'Mutant Goodfellas In New Orleans'

In the list of movies I'd like to have seen, the Channing Tatum-led "Gambit" is up there. One, because Tatum has enough charm to pull off my favorite character from "X-Men: The Animated Series," and two, because of what "Gambit" co-writer Reid Carolin told The Playlist (via Heroic Hollywood) about the story we would have seen in the film. 

Scheduling conflicts and rewrites for "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" kept him out of an ensemble picture, before finally the solo "Gambit" film was scrapped after time spent in development hell. Tatum is still upset about it, and I don't blame him one bit. The character of Remy LeBeau is such a fun one, and yeah, I know throwing cards full of kinetic energy isn't the sexiest of skills, but I can't do it. Can you? I think once you hear what they were planning, you might be as upset as I am that it never happened. 

'Don't Mess with a Bayou Boy!'

In the interview, Carolin said:

"We made this world in New Orleans that was a city of mutants that didn't care about saving the world. They went there so they could use their powers to party and hook up, and their hands could fry the grease at MacDonald's [sic] and whatever else, and the hardest thing for them to do was to fall in love because they could read each other's minds. Or when they got into a fight, they could turn a table into a grenade and send their partner to the hospital or whatever. So, it was all this kind of low-level mutant fights and disagreements and we set in this world of the Mafia—almost kind of like a mutant Goodfellas in New Orleans."

Now, see? This is such a fun idea! I love street-level superheroes, which is sometimes why I think people are so nostalgic for most of the Netflix Marvel TV series. It's not that it isn't great to connect all the shows to the big MCU stuff, but in a way, it's nice to see smaller films or shows where not every drama is world-ending. If a whole lot of people had mutant powers, not all of them would become a superhero or a super villain. Some of them would just use it to fix the mundane things in their lives, or mess with/become their local toughs. It feels closer to what I think would happen, rather than the big, dramatic alien attack/multiverse/explosions everywhere dramas we usually see. Plus, anything set in New Orleans is okay in my book. 

I know they wouldn't have done this, but I also really want to see Tatum with that animated Gambit hairstyle and so do you.