The Justice League trailer that premiered at Comic-Con had a humorous edge to it. The interactions between Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) had a zip that neither Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice nor Suicide Squad provided, suggesting that DC maybe, just maybe, had learned their lesson after Batman v Superman. Still, that's just a trailer, and the proof will be in the puddin', to quote Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn.
Meanwhile, Marvel has been openly playing with different tones and allowing for increasingly creative notes to sneak their way into their movies, especially with this year's delightfully debauched Deadpool. And that's just the reason that producer-writer Simon Kinberg gave for why Gambit, Doug Liman's anticipated adaptation of the beloved X-Men character, who will be portrayed by Channing Tatum, has been pushed back. In an interview with /Film, Kinberg said that the character has a very specific tone that he wanted to make sure the film nailed, even if the process took a little longer.
Leave it to Kinberg to be the one person who sounds halfway logical in all of this nonsense. Though I certainly have issues with his work on X-Men: The Last Stand, arguably the worst thing to come out of all these Marvel adaptations, his attitude here is reassuringly mature. Yes, I know that the comments are already being typed suggesting that my 20-acre mansion was bought and paid for by Marvel, but really, creating a cohesive, entertaining film needs to come before scheduling, marketing priorities, and almost everything else involved with filmmaking. Having a proven hand like Liman, who has created some of the most enjoyable big-studio entertainments of the last few decades, behind Gambit already had me interested in the project. Bundled with Kinberg's insistence that they do better with the titular character than the abomination that is X-Men Origins: Wolverine did, this is easily one of my most anticipated big-studio properties of 2017 right now.
Here's exactly what Kinberg had to say via /Film:
“I think the truth is when you have these movies that need a very special and unique tone, it takes a little while to find that tone...'Deadpool’ feels like it exploded out of nowhere, but it was a 10-year development process on that movie. I think it was honed over those 10 years.”
“I hope that 'Gambit' doesn’t take 10 years, but it takes a little honing to get that tone and that voice exactly right. The character has such a specific voice in the comic in the same way that ‘Deadpool’ has a specific voice in the comic, that we want to make sure that we capture that voice on the page. Really it’s just about getting a screenplay that is worthy of that character, and I think we’re really close right now.”
