Hot off the success of its other X-Men spinoff, Deadpool, Fox was set to begin filming on Gambit this month with Channing Tatum and Lea Seydoux set to star. But now Fox has announced the production on the film has been pushed back while the script undergoes extensive rewrites.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Gambit now likely won’t begin filming until December of this year, a substantial delay considering the film was originally scheduled to open in theater this October. Tatum’s producing partner Reid Carolin is currently rewriting the original draft by Josh Zetumer, whose only previous credit was the RoboCop reboot.

The Gambit script has been an ongoing problem for a while now. Back in September of last year, director Rupert Wyatt abruptly backed out of the film in part because of concerns over the state of the project. Even Tatum at one point threatened to walk off the film. You would’ve though that in the intervening months, especially with Doug Liman now set as the film’s new director, Fox would’ve worked out the potential issues, but they continue to linger. They’re lingering so much Liman is now expected to shoot another film, The Wall, before he starts on Gambit.

Gambit was always going to be a tough project for Fox. Though he’s a fan favorite, the film probably never would’ve even made it this far were it not for Tatum’s dogged determination to make the film. The studio has always never really seemed sure what to do with the character beyond and even with all this time to figure it out, they still don’t seem to know.

Gambit has been removed from Fox’s release schedule for now, but we’ll update as we get more information.

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