With the latest X-Men spin-off, Gambit, eyeing an October shooting date, it’s been all go on the casting front, with a shortlist of actresses, including Lea Seydoux (Spectre), Abby Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road), and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation), being looked at to play female lead Belladonna Bourdeaux alongside Channing Tatum’s titular smooth talking, playing card throwing mutant thief. That shortlist is now down to one name, with Deadline reporting that Ferguson dropping out of contention to star in thriller The Girl on the Train has seen Fox offer Seydoux the role (fun little detail: Seydoux is also member of the Mission: Impossible family, having played a ruthless assassin in Ghost Protocol)
X-Men fans will know what an important role Belladonna plays in Gambit’s backstory, with the pair once married in a ceremony to unite the Assassin’s and Thieves Guilds of New Orleans. Of course, things went bad, and Gambit was forced to flee the city, earning the ire of Belladonna, who developed the mutant power to fire bursts of plasma from her hands soon after. There’s now way of knowing if the movie will go down this route, but if they do, it should provide Seydoux a slightly different role than most superhero fare if she accepts.
Directed by Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Rupert Wyatt, Gambit comes our way October 7th 2016.
