Chris Potter, the voice actor behind Gambit in the 1990s "X-Men: The Animated Series," has revealed he auditioned for a live-action X-Men role during Bryan Singer's original film, though not for the character he was famous for. Speaking at a Tampa Bay Comic Convention panel, Potter recalled trying out for Cyclops rather than Gambit, a mismatch he found strange even at the time since he only ever wanted to play Remy LeBeau on screen. The revelation highlights the long-running absence of Gambit from Fox's X-Men film franchise, a gap that was never resolved despite years of expectation.

The role of Cyclops ultimately went to James Marsden, who played the character across four films, while Gambit never appeared in any mainline X-Men movie during the Fox era, including the failed Channing Tatum solo project. Potter, who voiced Gambit for the show's first four seasons, joined fellow original cast members Alyson Court and Adrian Hough, both of whom returned for the "X-Men '97" revival, at the convention panel moderated by Collider's Maggie Lovitt.