Oh, boy. As if Fox’s upcoming Gambit film wasn’t plagued by enough drama, it just lost its director, Rupert Wyatt.
Wyatt released an official statement explaining his departure:
“I was very much looking forward to working with my friend Channing and the team at Fox, but regrettably a push in the start date now conflicts with another project. I thank them for the opportunity, and I know that Gambit will make a terrific film.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are a couple possible reasons for the changed start date, the first being a change in the script which caused a domino effect.
A second source said that trying to schedule shooting around Mardi Gras was the problem.
Either way, losing a director is never easy and the studio will have to find a replacement relatively quickly.
There’s a lot riding on this film, as well as the solo Deadpool film. Fox has had success with their X-Men films but if they want to start competing with Marvel and Warner Bros. in terms of having a cinematic universe, they need their solo character films to succeed.
This doesn’t mean Gambit is going to fail in any way, but it’s not a good sign that the film has had so much trouble in pre-production.
Gambit is set to hit theaters on October 7, 2016. It stars Channing Tatum and Léa Seydoux.
