X-Men studio tried to trick Halle Berry with “Africa” script

❘ Published: 2023-10-16T10:14:24

20th Century Studios

It’s a very exciting time to be a fan of superhero movies, but its past is looking a bit bleak. Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn recently explained why he left X-Men: The Last Stand – which involves star Halle Berry.

Released in 2006, the third installment in the original X-Men trilogy grossed over $460 million at the worldwide box office. The movie had mixed reviews from both fans and critics, stating that the finale was a disappointing comedown, despite having some emotionally moving moments.

As per the film’s synopsis, “The discovery of a cure for mutations leads to a turning point for Mutants (Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer). They may now choose to give up their powers and become fully human or retain their uniqueness and remain isolated. War looms between the followers of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who preaches tolerance, and those of Magneto (Ian McKellen), who advocates survival of the fittest.”

Almost 20 years later, filmmaker Matthew Vaughn has revealed why he left the project in the first place after Halle Berry’s involvement was originally not as it seemed.

Fox had fake script for Halle Berry to agree to X-Men film

Speaking at this year’s New York Comic Con [via MovieWeb], Vaughn revealed that he left the director’s chair of X-Men: The Last Stand because Fox had created a dupe script to get Halle Berry to return as Storm.

“One of the main reasons I quit X-Men 3, and this is a true story. Hollywood is really political and odd. I went to an executive’s office and I saw an X3 script. It was a lot fatter,” Vaughn explained.

“I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ So I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.’ I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is the Halle Berry script because she hasn’t signed on yet. This is what she wants it to be. And once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.’

“I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit. I thought, I’m mincemeat.”

Instead of working on X-Men with Halle Berry, who did end up returning to the original trilogy, Vaughn went on to make the 2007 film Stardust with Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Henry Cavill.

“The man who said, ‘You’ll never work in this town again,’ watched Kick-Ass, and, to his credit, he called me up and said, ‘I didn’t mean it when I said that,'” Vaughn explained about the initial fallout of his X-Men departure.

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