It’s rare to see voice actors get the opportunity to reprise their roles in live-action. Often, that privilege is reserved for the biggest stars, translating their characters into bigger productions, like Gerard Butler playing Stoick the Vast in both versions of How to Train Your Dragon or Dwayne Johnson playing Maui in the original and remake of Moana. On rare occasions, though, fan favorites get the chance to make the jump from the booth to the camera, from Katee Sackhoff as Bo Katan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian to James Sie as the unfortunate cabbage merchant in both Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Back when casting for the original X-Men was underway, one star from the beloved 90s animated series tried to make the same leap himself — Chris Potter.
On X-Men: The Animated Series, Potter memorably voiced Le Diable Blanc himself, Gambit, across the first four seasons of the classic show. It was the first time Remy LeBeau ever appeared on-screen, and thus he became synonymous with the character for a time. However, there weren’t many opportunities to bring the card-slinger to life. The 20th Century Fox era of Marvel infamously never introduced Gambit as part of the X-Men, and even when Channing Tatum’s doomed solo screwball romantic comedy project seemed poised to finally make it happen, things still fell through. That didn’t stop Potter from throwing his hat in the ring for the role of another mutant altogether.
The voice actor joined fellow X-Men: The Animated Series and returning X-Men ‘97 stars Alyson Court (Jubilee) and Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler) over the weekend for a Tampa Bay Comic Convention panel moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, where they got into some live-action discussion. Potter specifically was reminded of his audition for X-Men under Bryan Singer, where, instead of Gambit, he went for the role of Scott Summers. I’d auditioned for the first movie for Cable, or I’m sorry, for Cyclops,” he recalled. “And I went in, and I met with the producers, and Bryan Singer poked his head in.” In the end, the part ended up with James Marsden, who would continue to play Scott across four films, though that may have been for the best for Potter, as, in his heart, he only wanted to be Gambit. That made it all the more disappointing and confusing to him that the franchise ultimately never touched Remy.
“I was filming, and the whole time I was doing the audition, I was thinking, I don’t even want to play this guy. I’m Gambit. I want to play Gambit. He’s not in the movie, but he’ll be in the next movie because Gambit’s great; he’ll be in the next movie. Well, all the movies went by, and now I can play Gambit’s grandfather. But I’ll never forget that. I thought, you know, to me it just seemed like a slam dunk that Gambit would be in the second movie. Why wouldn’t he be in the first? So, it was odd to see all those years go by and him never being in live-action stuff.”
Based on your answers, the Marvel hero who matches your spirit, values, and instincts has been revealed.
You carry the weight of the world on shoulders that are younger than they should have to be — funny, loyal, and endlessly self-sacrificing.
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Brilliant, driven, and occasionally insufferable — but always the person who solves the unsolvable problem.
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Powerful, proud, and on a lifelong journey to become worthy of the legend you carry.
You believe in something bigger than yourself — and you fight for it even when the world has moved on and nobody else will.
There is a world out there where, instead of Marsden, Potter would be set to return to the role of Cyclops later this year with the release of Avengers: Doomsday, but instead, he’s stuck to the animated side of the mutants as Cable in ‘97. Tatum, at least, has finally gotten his moment in the sun, playing Remy first in Deadpool & Wolverine before getting the call to assemble against Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr) himself.** **The MCU is now also looking to a new generation to form its new roster of X-Men once Secret Wars is through and a new era begins for the franchise. Potter acknowledges that, at this point, playing Gambit’s grandfather is as close as he’ll get to embodying the man himself.
Reportedly, Gambit will again sit out the first movie, but the next Cyclops has been found in the form of Heartstopper star Kit Connor. He’ll join a younger lineup of mutants including Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, Christopher Abbott as Professor X, and Adam Driver as Mister Sinister, which was fully unveiled at D23 last month. Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is at the helm for what will be one of Marvel’s most important projects to date, with Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo penning the current draft of the screenplay.
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