Whether we're talking about Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, or Baby Driver, filmmaker Edgar Wright has delivered classic after classic. There was a time when he'd planned to helm Ant-Man, but creative differences with Marvel Studios saw him walk away from a project we're sure would have been another big win.
All this time, we've all assumed that was Wright's only Marvel near-miss but, in an interview with Slash Film, he reflected on 20th Century Fox offering him Gambit.
"Gambit wasn't a character I knew too well," he admits. "He appeared after my time reading Marvels - roughly 1985 - 1990 or so. [He] wasn't one that I knew a lot about and hadn't really read growing up, so it felt like it was someone else's dream gig."
"Maybe he means more to people who watched the [animated] show? Which again, was after my time."
It turns out X-Men franchise writer and producer Simon Kinberg was the one who pursued Wright and, in a separate interview with the site, he explained why the Hot Fuzz helmer was the right man for the job in his eyes.
"He's one of my favorite directors of all time and one of my favorite people, just a super great guy. Obviously a cinephile. I've chased Edgar for X-Men movies. I've chased him for literally every possible thing. We have talked about every movie."
Clearly, Wright knew better than to work for Kinberg (perhaps he saw what became of Josh Trank after Fantastic Four).
Originally set for release in 2016, Gambit was supposed to star Channing Tatum in the lead role but ended up being hit by countless creative issues and delays before the Disney/Fox merger sealed its fate when the spin-off, along with several other projects, was scrapped.
Talking about missing out on starring in Gambit, Tatum previously said he was left "traumatized" by the experience, adding that he, "shut off [his] Marvel machine" and was unable to watch any of the other Marvel movies. Why? Because "I loved that character. It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so ready to play him."
Fortunately for Tatum, it's been rumoured that he'll get his chance to play the Cajun mutant in next year's Deadpool 3. It's unclear how much of a role he'll actually have in the threequel, but we're sure it will feel like redemption for the actor after coming so close to playing the hero.
As for Wright, we can only hope he decides to join the Marvel or DC Universes somewhere down the line...