Director Matthew Vaughn revealed that Fox’s questionable tactics were behind him walking away from the X-Men: The Last Stand. He claims the last straw was when the studio fabricated a script including Halle Berry reprising her role as Storm.
Vaughn spoke about the trickery during the 2023 New York Comic Con, and as The Hollywood Reporter reports, he told the crowd a fake script was allegedly created for Berry that would have carried out her vision for Storm.
The director added that the studio planned to scrape the script once Berry agreed to return to her iconic role.
Berry was the last member of the original cast to return. Stars such as Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart had already agreed to film the 2006 movie.
Vaughn claimed the draft that the studio heads presented involved a scene with Storm saving kids in Africa. The plot alluded to Berry’s involvement, which Vaughn thought was a “pretty cool idea.”
“I went into one of the executive’s offices 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,'” he recollected. “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.'”
The King’s Man director spoke about when he realized it was all a ruse.
“[I said,] ‘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,'” the director said, providing the executive’s misleading reply. “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.”
Vaughn was the second director who had jumped ship from X-Men: The Last Stand. He was brought in after Bryan Singer chose to direct Superman Returns. Brett Ratner, the director of the Rush Hour series, stepped up to helm the film after Vaughn exited. Vaughn did return to the franchise in 2011 as the director of X-Men: First Class.
Although there were some discrepancies with her script, Berry did appear in X-Men: The Last Stand. However, the scene Vaughn identified did not make the film’s final cut.
Berry also had screentime as Storm in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
