Anna Paquin‘s scenes as Rogue that were cut from “X-Men: Days of Future Past” will be added back to the film and re-released as the “Rogue Cut” next summer on homevideo platforms.
The extended version of “Days of Future Past” will become available in the first half of 2015, most likely during the summer, according to the film’s writer and producer Simon Kinberg, who made the announcement Thursday from Stage 21, where scenes for the previous “X-Men” installment, “First Class” were filmed on the Twentieth Century Fox studio lot. Kinberg, who also worked on that film, was back on the lot to promote the theatrical version of “Days of Future Past,” available now on digital and on Oct. 14 on DVD and Blu-ray.
“This the movie we’re the most proud of,” Kinberg said of the theatrical version that became the “X-Men” franchise’s top earner with $746 million this summer.
Yet more than 10 minutes of extra footage will be added to the “Rogue Cut” of “Days of Future Past,” which in addition to Paquin’s cut scenes, will also include other sequences involving other characters, as well.
Popular on Variety
“It’s a big chunk, a substantial part of the movie,” Kinberg said of Paquin’s storyline as Rogue. “We want to give (fans) the fullest picture of the film — behind the camera, and in front of it,” with the “Rogue Cut” and provide “more of the process we went through” to make the film.
“Every movie has scenes that are cut out, but not every movie has scenes cut out with such a beloved character,” Kinberg added.
Paquin played Rogue in “X-Men,” “X-Men 2” and “X-Men: The Last Stand.” She does still appear in “Days of Future Past” but in a smaller cameo.
Paquin’s scenes didn’t make the final cut because the film was “full of plots and subplots.” Her storyline as Rogue just “didn’t fit” with the final film, which Kinberg said was always designed to revolve around Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy. The film also co-stars Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore and Peter Dinklage among its massive cast.
“It’s the most complicated movie I’ve ever worked on,” Kinberg said, because of the film’s time traveling focus that unites the X-Men characters from the first trilogy, directed by Bryan Singer, and younger ones from Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class,” while introducing even more like Quicksilver.
“I pray to God I never work on another time travel movie,” Kinberg said.
Kinberg is currently writing the next “X-Men” film, “Apocalypse,” which Singer will return to direct the film that’s set during the 1980s. “Days of Future Past” was set during the 1970s.
The return to the Fox lot on Thursday, “is the first time I’ve been out of the house in awhile,” he said, given his scripting duties on “Apocalypse.”
