Mahin Sultan
Ever since it was confirmed that Channing Tatum, too, will soon become a part of the MCU with his own superhero movie for Gambit, fans were excited to the core, patiently awaiting for the film to finish production and get released. However, after numerous release date delays, Marvel Studios decided to call off the project rather unexpectedly, leaving both fans as well as Tatum heartbroken.
But Channing Tatum wasn’t the only one who suffered: Daniel Craig, too, was in talks of playing the legendary Marvel villain, Mr. Sinister, in the Magic Mike star’s unproduced X-Men film. This would not only have made the movie a masterpiece, but it could also have produced earth-shattering results at the box office.
Daniel Craig Almost Played ‘Mr. Sinister’ In Channing Tatum’s Canceled Marvel Film
Everyone knows Daniel Craig best for his heroic portrayal of Agent 007 on-screen, but his debut in the MCU with a whole different and legendary villain-ish role could’ve changed the audience’s entire perspective of him. As it turns out, he was reportedly lined up to play ‘Mr. Sinister’ in Channing Tatum’s unproduced solo superhero movie, Gambit.
As per reports from Splash Report (via Evening Standard), “conversations” had taken place regarding the possibility of having Craig play the supervillain: not only in Tatum’s stand-alone film but in future X-Men movies as well.
Mister Sinister aka Nathaniel Essex was a scientist who crossed several ethical limits just to develop superpowers like shapeshifting, telepathy, and telekineses, and ended up becoming a mutant: one that’s the closest to perfection that will ever be.
While watching Daniel Craig play a supervillain as legendary as this one would have been epic and might even have ended up making Channing Tatum‘s movie a box-office blockbuster, Marvel decided to cancel the project even before production, thus, shattering the dreams of millions of watching both the top-rated actors in remarkable superhero-supervillain roles.
Channing Tatum Worked Really Hard For Marvel’s Gambit
Since both the audience as well as the Magic Mike star were really looking forward to the stand-alone Gambit movie, Marvel’s decision to call it off left everyone heartbroken. Sharing with Variety, Channing Tatum revealed what the possible reasons behind the canceling of the movie could have been. He said,
“It got swallowed up into Disney by way of Marvel when they bought Fox, and ultimately I just think that the tone of the movie we wanted to make was very far from what they wanted to do—or, you know, maybe they’re waiting to see how they do it with us or without us,” Tatum said. “We call every once in a while, but we’ve got to spiritually, emotionally, kind of mentally let it go.”
But the fact that the film’s dark storyline might not have sat well with Disney wasn’t the only reason why Tatum was devastated at the project ending before even starting: it was because he worked really hard for the movie.
“I was working a lot,” he recalled. “I had gotten to work with some of my favorite directors. I had checked boxes that I would never have hoped to dream about. But something just wasn’t quite filling me up. I was sort of kind of just trying not to be bad in movies, instead of being good. And I was kind of going, ‘What’s…’ And it really had nothing to do with my work. It was really about my life.”
Perhaps, had the Channing Tatum starrer solo Gambit movie with Daniel Craig in the villain’s seat actually ended up getting produced and released, Marvel might not have been in the bad state it is today.
Source: Evening Standard | Variety
