Taylor Kitsch talks Gambit, Josh Schwartz talks X-Men: First Class

From: coventrytelegraph.net
Written by: David Bentley

TAYLOR KITSCH says he hopes to go deeper into his character Gambit, the mutant card trickster who had a long-awaited screen appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Studio bosses at 20th Century Fox are considering a solo film for Gambit - and if that doesn't happen he could reprise his role in the Wolverine sequel that's already in development.

Gambit, who can charge objects (often his deck of cards) with an explosive kinetic energy, was the most hotly anticipated new character in the movie, according to a poll of film fans.

Kitsch, 28, spoke to Rotten Tomatoes at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was promoting his latest project, The Bang Bang Club, and said he was excited about taking Gambit to the next level.

After being told about the Wolverine sequel, Kitsch said: "Man, good on Hugh for doing that to his body again. I hadn't heard that was going to happen! You have my brain going now about what I'd love to do with Gambit!"

He added: "I'm just excited to go deeper into Gambit. It's a flattering thing when people say that the only shitty part about the character is we didn't see enough of him. If that's the case, bring it on. I want to go deep into Gambit.

"He has so many more colours to explore. I want to go dark with that cat. There are so many things I want people to see of him and he really is his own deal. In Wolverine he was very much moving the story along.

"If I can have some moments where you go deeper into Gambit's back-story and why he was the way he was at that poker table - that's a fun thing to explore."

"I have the tools now to do some larger fights and I'd be really excited to get a chance to do that, too. I have so many ideas in my mind right now!"

One of the other X-Men projects in the pipeline is X-Men: First Class, focusing on the earliest students at Xavier's school. It's being written by Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz and was set up by final scenes in the Wolverine movie.

Schwartz was asked about the project by THR and said: "It's something I'd always fantasised about doing. I knew [producer] Simon Kinberg (who co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand) and he approached me about it. I've started it and I'm having a blast, but I'm not allowed to say anything more."

The film is expected to include young versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Storm along with - if scenes in Wolverine can be taken as clues - Banshee, Emma Frost, Quicksilver and other mutant students.