X-Men producer Simon Kinberg confirmed there were plans for classic comics villain Mister Sinister to appear in the cancelled Gambit movie. Kinberg, who played a similar role on the X-Men movies to the one Kevin Feige has played in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, also wrote a number of the X-Men films, and directed the final Fox X-Men entry, Dark Pheonix.
Gambit was all set to go into production with Channing Tatum signed on to play the Ragin'Cajun, before Disney purchased Fox. That led to the long-delayed film being shelved by the Mouse House, a move that former director Doug Liman said signed the death warrant for the movie. Gambit was beset by problems from its conception, going through a number of potential directors, including Rupert Wyatt, Liman, Gore Verbinski as well as Tatum himself, and in the end it was deemed too much of a risk for Disney to move forward with.
Kinberg, however, has now dropped the news that Mister Sinister, also known in the comics as Nathaniel Essex, was being lined up to appear in the solo film as a villain. Speaking to IGN during an X-Men: Days of Future Past watch party, Kinberg said that Sinister would have been part of Gambit, after the Essex Corporation was introduced in the post-credits scene of X-Men: Apocalypse.
"We had talked about doing something with him, and I won't get into the specifics of it since it's no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it's part of the MCU. I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum."
Kinberg is careful to avoid treading on the toes of Disney and Marvel now that he is no longer involved, but makes it clear that Mister Sinister was going to play a large role in Fox's X-Men movies at some point. Kinberg also mentions that rumors of Sinister appearing in the upcoming New Mutants are not true, and they never even got close to casting the character.
It's a pity that we never got to see Mister Sinister appear in the X-Men movies, as he would have added an interesting dimension to the franchise. Fox's X-Men films often suffered from villain fatigue, with the Magneto vs. Charles Xavier dynamic being overused throughout the series. Films like Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix attempted to overcome that, but largely failed, and having a strong, classic X-Men villain in the movies would have helped to freshen them up. It seems like that was the plan for Gambit at least, and potentially future installments in the franchise.
That's not to say Mister Sinister won't appear in any future X-Men films. It's still unclear how the X-Men will fit into the MCU, but Disney will surely want to take advantage of the rich comic book history and back catalog of villains from the X-Men canon. And that leaves space for Sinister to make his mark in future films. We can only hope.
Source: IGN
