Actor Chris Potter, who voiced Gambit in X-Men: The Animated Series and Cable in X-Men ’97, recently shared that he auditioned for the 2000 live-action X-Men movie.
According to Agents of Fandom, Potter revealed at the 2024 Calgary Expo panel, Going Back to X-Men ’97!, on April 25 that he auditioned for the role of Scott Summers/Cyclops in X-Men, which ultimately went to James Marsden.
“I auditioned for Cyclops for the Bryan Singer’s X-Men movie in the 2000s and the whole time I was thinking ‘I don’t want to do this, I want to be Gambit! Why isn’t he in the movie?’,” Potter recalled to those in attendance.
Potter previously voiced Remy LeBeau/Gambit in all five seasons of X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran on Fox Kids Network for five seasons and 76 episodes between October 1992 and September 1997. He also appeared in two episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series as the Ragin’ Cajun.
For the animated revival, X-Men ’97, Gambit is voiced by A. J. LoCascio, with Potter stepping into the role of Cable, the adult son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor who is from the future.
Gambit didn’t appear in live-action until X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Despite being a fan-favorite X-Men character, Gambit did not appear in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men film series until 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where he was portrayed by Taylor Kitsch. Channing Tatum was also set to appear as the Ragin’ Cajun in a spin-off movie, but the project was shelved in May 2019 after five years of being stuck in development hell.
However, there is still a chance that fans will see Tatum’s Gambit realized on the big screen. Multiple insiders have stated that the actor will make his debut as Gambit in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine. The highly-anticipated movie is already confirmed to feature several characters from the X-Men film series, such as Aaron Stanford as Pyro, in addition to Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine.
The X-Men movies and X-Men ’97 are available to stream on Disney+.
