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What was Rogue’s cut-scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past? Kinberg reveals all

June 3rd, 2014 by Marc 4 Comments

SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU’VE YET TO SEE X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

So we all remember the Rogue (Anna Paquin) debacle in X-Men: Days of Future Past? She was cast and then her scenes were all cut. Then she was reinstated for a brief cameo – very brief.

Well, producer Simon Kinberg has been talking to Empire Magazine about the part she would have played had her scenes remained… and Bryan Singer is still hoping they’ll appear in the home release in some form.

Kinberg says: “The Rogue subplot was originally there because I wanted a mission for the older Charles and Eric to do, something like Unforgiven – two last gunslingers, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman – that kind of a mission for them, because we may never see it again… I initially wrote that Kitty’s power was running out, and there was this super silly serum that was down in a farmhouse… it was terrible and Matthew Vaughn said it was terrible, and he was right.

“Then I thought that if her power was winding down, they needed something stronger or someone who could take over her power. This came from a conversation with Matthew, which was about no-one having the same power as her but then realising there was someone who could take her power. I got chills. Rogue could be the McGuffin of that mission. They’d have to get Rogue out of some dark scary place, and that’s what happens. It’s a really nice sequence, and it’ll end up on Blu-ray some way down the line.

“But it does not service the main story. I thought it would increase the urgency and the stakes of the plot in the future, but it actually does the opposite, because it makes you feel like there is an answer out there. You think once Rogue gets here, we’ll have an unlimited amount of time. The ticking clock that we’d established with Kitty getting wounded and losing her powers… well, Rogue would show up and press stop on the clock. So for all of those narrative reasons, there was this ten-minute subplot that had to go.”

It would still have been nice to see her in a more substantial role in the movie and this makes sense, especially juxtaposed against Magneto using her in the first movie, it almost has a sense of closure. But we can see why he reckons it was unnecessary in the end. Just one more reason to look forward to the home release, huh?

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….