Rupert Wyatt, who revived 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes franchise in 2011, has been given the keys to another franchise movie at the studio. He will direct Gambit, the upcoming X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum in the title role.
The directing news was first reported by Entertainment Weekly. It will be Wyatt’s fourth feature film and first since 2014’s The Gambler remake with Mark Wahlberg.
Wyatt helped bring back Fox’s Planet of the Apes from the dustbin of film history with the prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That film was a major success and was followed-up by Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014.
Fox officially greenlit Gambit in November 2014, with Tatum replacing Taylor Kitsch, who had the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It has been scheduled for Oct. 7, 2016.
In May, Tatum revealed that Gambit will be an origin story, which makes sense. Kitsch’s version of the character never appeared in another movie, so movie audiences will have to be introduced to the explosive card-throwing mutant.