‘Gambit' leaked casting call teases Mr. Sinister as main villain

Actor Channing Tatum with his wife Jenna Dewan pose with his Trailblazer award backstage at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, California April 13, 2014. Reuters/Danny Moloshok

A casting call for “Gambit” teases the possibility of Mr. Sinister as the main villain in the film. The casting call was supposedly revealed to a reporter from Showbiz411.

Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 says he received a casting call for 20th Century Fox’s “Gambit” spin-off, which he says is filming in secret in New Orleans under the working title “Chess.” The casting call listed 14 names in total, which Science Fiction and Cinema Blend have analysed according to the characters in the original comic book story.

Both sites were especially intrigued with the first name “Louis” listed on the casting call. Louis is described to be in his 40s or 50s, “elegant and intelligent” and is an “appealing entrepreneur with an unexpected dark side.”

Cinema Blend reports that the character description of Louis clearly refers to the villain Nathaniel Essex, also known as Mr. Sinister. The site claims the scientist could be the film’s main antagonist. Science Fiction adds that the fact that his name appears first in the casting list is already a tease to the major role he will play in the “Gambit” spin-off.

For those who are not familiar with the Marvel character, Mr. Sinister is a 19 ^th century biologist who has become obsessed with human mutation or cloning. Comicvine describes the immortal villain as quite possibly the greatest geneticist in the world, who is skilled in cloning, creating, enhancing and controlling mutant abilities. Nathaniel Essex became Mr. Sinister after he was genetically mutated by En Sabah Nur or Apocalypse.

Cinema Blend claims it would make sense for Mr. Sinister to be the main villain in “Gambit” considering his history with the card-wielding mutant. During his younger years, Gambit worked for Nathaniel Essex, where he was once hired to steal some important documents from the Weapon X program.

Channing Tatum, who plays Remy LeBeau a.k.a. Gambit, has so far remained tight-lipped on production details. There have been rumours of the character appearing in “X-Men: Apocalypse.” However, the actor made his intention clear during a previous MTV interview that he wants the character’s story to be an origin story. Having Gambit appear in “X-Men: Apocalypse” would not be enough to tell the mutant’s origin.

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