EXCLUSIVE: Gore Verbinski, who had come aboard to direct the long-in-the-works X-Men spinoff Gambit, is pulling off of the 20th Century Fox movie. This was an amicable split, we hear, owing to scheduling issues with several other projects on the director’s plate. Channing Tatum remains aboard as the lead role.

Fox has already set a February 14, 2019 release date for the film; no word if that will have to change given the new news.

It is the latest turn on the project, which at previous points had Doug Liman and Rupert Wyatt attached to direct the pic about Gambit/Remy LeBeau (Tatum), who has the ability to charge matter with volatile kinetic energy, turning anything he touches into a weapon. The character had a brief appearance in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, played by Taylor Kitsch.

Free Association’s Tatum and Reid Carolin are producing the film with X-Men overseers Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. Josh Zetumer wrote the script. Lizzy Caplan was in talks to co-star.