Having already discussed in depth The Best & Worst Of ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past‘, there’s still more to dig into about the mutant-filled movie, particularly when it comes to those who only got a few seconds of screen time. Yes, there will be spoilers, so in case you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to skip to something else.
Anyway, while Anna Paquin‘s Rogue briefly shows up at the end of ‘DOFP’ in Charles Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, she initially had a much larger role in the film. The word of the character being snipped from the final cut first emerged late last year. “Through the editing process, the sequence became extraneous. It’s a really good sequence and it will probably end up on the DVD so people can see it,” director Bryan Singer said at the time. “But like many things in the editing process, it was an embarrassment of riches and it was just one of the things that had to go.” So what exactly was Rogue up to in that deleted material?
According to writer Simon Kinberg, when Kitty Pryde gets injured by Wolverine during their time travel session, Rogue steps in to absorb Kitty’s powers so she can stay stable, keeping Wolverine safely in the past. But that’s not all. Another excised sequence had Professor X, Magneto, and Iceman teaming up on going to rescue Rogue from the Sentinels. It was a lot of stuff, but ultimately, it couldn’t stay.
“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,” Kinberg told Empire. “So for all of those narrative reasons, there was this ten-minute subplot that had to go.”
And, really, that makes a lot of sense. ‘DOFP’ has so much going on already that a Rogue-centered plot thread certainly sounds like too much of a good thing. Thoughts? Weigh in below, but first, here’s a clip of Evan Peters‘ new fan fave Quicksilver, who was served up in just the right amount. [via AVClub]
