Last week, it was made official that Gambit would get his own movie within in the X-Men film franchise. Starring Channing Tatum as the card-throwing mutant, the solo film will be written by Robocop reboot writer Josh Zetumer and based off a treatment from Gambit creator Chris Claremont. This will be his first appearance since X-Men Origins: Wolverine, although there have been rumors of the character appearing in X-Men: Apocalypse. While this movie likely won’t feature Gambit saving the world or anything as heavy as that, it will be good to see the Ragin’ Cajun get another shot at the big screen, no matter what the adventure is.
While Gambit hasn’t had as many solo stories as Wolverine, who is the only Marvel mutant to get his own movie thus far (Deadpool is coming!), there are still plenty of material to draw from his past, whether it’s from his tenure as an X-Man or his time with the Thieves Guild. But with all of those stories will come necessary side-characters - which just about brings us up to speed. When the Gambit movie hits theaters a few years from now, these are the characters who need to show up alongside him.
Jean-Luc LeBeau
After being abandoned by his father as a baby, Gambit was stolen from the orphanage he was dropped off at by the Thieves Guild and placed in the care of a group of street thieves called Fagan’s Mob (a nice little nod to Oliver Twist). When he was 10, Remy (Gambit’s civilian name) tried to pickpocket Jean-Luc LeBeau. What Remy didn’t know was that LeBeau was the head of the Guild. After catching the little pickpocket, Jean-Luc took the boy under his wing and adopted him. If the film explores Gambit’s childhood at all, it will need to include his adopted father, especially if the history of the Thieves’ Guild is explored in-depth.
Candra
The Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild were created by Candra, an immortal, telekinetic member of the mutant group known as The Externals. She provided the groups with power in exchange for tributes and information. Even when the Guilds split apart, they were still subtly influenced by her. When Gambit was a teenager, he was sent on an initiation test by the Thieves Guild to steal from Candra, but he was soon caught. In a strange twist, she recognized Remy from a previous encounter where the future Gambit had time traveled back to the nineteenth century and fought her, and decided to sell him to a slave trader known as The Pig. Remy was able to escape using his recently manifested kinetic abilities, and he would run into Candra on several other occasions - including his time-travel adventure. If the movie kept her telekinetic powers and immortality intact, she would make an excellent villain for Gambit to face off against.
Bella Donna Boudreaux
While Remy was raised by Jean-Luc LeBeau and the Thieves Guild, Bella was the daughter of the Assassins Guild leader. She and Remy were good friends as children, and eventually they were betrothed by their parents so that the two Guilds could build a new alliance. However, Bella’s brother, Julien, refused to accept their marriage, and challenged Remy to a duel. Remy killed Julien, and as punishment for killing an Assassins Guild member, he was excommunicated from the Thieves Guild and exiled from New Orleans. Angry that Remy left her behind, Bella spent the next years pursuing revenge against him and even joined forces with Candra. Adding Bella to the film would give Gambit that tragic romantic angle that these X-Men films love to use.
Rogue
Although Rogue is Gambit’s most well-known love interest in the comics, her relationship with him in the X-Men films would be complicated. Assuming the time-travel shenanigans of X-Men: Days of Future Past didn’t change when he was born, Gambit is in his late 20s or early 30s when X-Men Origins: Wolverine takes place, which is around the late 1970s-early 1980s. Rogue hasn’t even been born yet, and even if Gambit were to somehow travel to the future, she’s still involved with Bobby Drake. So while a romantic relationship between Gambit and Rogue is unlikely, it would still be cool to see her show up in the film somehow, whether it’s in a cameo or a supporting role. Hey, Wolverine was able to hang out in the 1970s. Maybe some mutant sends Gambit to the present day. It’s not unprecedented.
Mister Sinister
It might seem weird including one of the X-Men’s greatest villains in a Gambit film, but these two have a long past together. In the disguise of Nathaniel Essex, Mister Sinister hired the young Remy to steal back some diaries from Weapon X - the same program that gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton. However, while Gambit did find the diaries, he skimmed through them and burned them, deciding that the information was too dangerous for Essex to have. Years later, Gambit came to Sinister for help with controlling his powers. Sinister removed part of his brain stem so that he would have better control, but in return, Sinister forced Gambit to carry out missions for him.
Sinister is still a villain that could easily antagonize the X-Men team on his own, but if the Gambit solo film is looking for a mastermind to be behind every terrible event in the story, he would fill the role nicely. If the movies don’t plan to explore Sinister’s relationship with Cyclops, they might as well take advantage of Gambit’s solo movie to finally include him. The best part is that his appearance in Gambit could still set up a future appearance in one of the team movies, which would further connect Gambit to the other X-Men. Don’t kid yourself, you want to see the Cajun throwing his energy cards alongside the other mutants at some point.
