Matthew Vaughn Quit ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ After Discovering Plan to Trick Halle Berry With a Fake Storm Script That Would Be Trashed After She Signed On to Return

Before Matthew Vaughn earned critical acclaim for rebooting the “X-Men” movie franchise with 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” he was courted to replace Bryan Singer as the director of 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” That tentpole served as the third film in the storyline led by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but Vaughn recently revealed at New York City Comic-Con (via ScreenRant) that he rejected the offer to direct the sequel after discovering a studio executive’s plan to deceive Halle Berry into reprising her role as Storm.

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

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“I thought it was a pretty cool idea,” Vaughn continued. “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.”

Quit is exactly what Vaughn did, with the studio ultimately replacing Singer with “Rush Hour” filmmaker Brett Ratner. Singer left the franchise after 2000’s “X-Men” and 2003’s “X2: X-Men United” to direct “Superman Returns.”

Berry ended up returning as Storm in “X-Men: The Last Stand,” but the film did not include any scenes set in Africa as the script Vaughn read included. “The Last Stand” did, however, give Storm a more prominent role as the character takes over as the head of Charles Xavier’s school for mutants after his death.

Vaughn ended up getting his shot at directing an “X-Men” movie years later with 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” starring James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. The film was beloved by critics and fans, who agreed Vaughn had successfully revived the franchise after the lackluster “The Last Stand.” Variety wrote in its “First Class” review that “the beleaguered Marvel movie property gets the smart, stylish prequel it deserves.”

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