Matthew Vaughn Says Executives Tricked Halle Berry Into Starring In X-Men 3

Halle Berry as Storm

Director Matthew Vaughn, famous for his work on Kingsman, Kick-Ass, and X-Men: First Class, was originally attached to direct X-Men: The Last Stand, the third installment in the X-Men film franchise by Fox. He ultimately stepped down from the position citing personal reasons, with Brett Ratner taking over, but a new panel has shed light on Vaughn’s decision not to move forward with the project.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Vaughn appeared in a 45-minute panel at New York Comic-Con over the weekend, talking about his career and his upcoming thriller film, Argylle. While we learned some interesting new information about the upcoming Kick-Ass reboot, one of the more interesting stories he told was about the production of X-Men: The Last Stand.

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According to Vaughn, one of the executives who worked on the film had a fake script written with the sole purpose of getting Halle Berry to return as Storm. Vaughn says the executive initially tried to hide the script from him, but he wasn’t very happy about it.

“I went into one of the executive’s office and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like what the hell is this draft. He went, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m the director. I’m worrying about this draft,'” Vaughn said during the panel, “He wouldn’t tell me, so I grabbed it literally — it was like a crazy moment — opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.'”

According to THR, Vaughn thought the idea was a solid one, but when he asked the executive about it, they said that it wouldn’t be used in the final draft.

““[I went,] ‘What is this?’ [They said,] ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. I went, ‘OK, because she hasn’t signed up yet.’ ‘But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin.’ I was like, ‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”

Berry later went on to appear in X-Men: Days of Future past, which was co-written by Vaughn, alongside X3 costars Anna Paquin, Hugh Jackman, and Elliot Page.