When X-Men: Days of Future Past-The Rogue Cut is released next week, it will add the titular mutant’s cut scenes back into the film. In the theatrical version, moviegoers only saw Anna Paquin’s character for a brief second near the end of the film, but in this extended version, fans can see her back in action and helping out in the fight against the Sentinels. As it turns out, there was a good reason Rogue had to be cut from the final product: her role was too self-contained.
In an exclusive featurette posted by Bleeding Cool, producer Hutch Parker revealed that Rogue was pulled out of the film because her storyline had the least amount of impact on the overall plot. Parker said:
None of us wanted to see that sequence go, but that was the storyline. Because it was so self-contained, it really was its own separate mission, that it actually could be lifted with the least amount of negative impact on anything that came before or after.
After an eight year absence from the franchise, Paquin was seen in early trailers for X-Men: Days of Future Past, but months later, the studio revealed that her role had been all but erased for the theatrical version. In The Rogue Cut, after Wolverine accidentally stabs Kitty Pryde, Professor X and Magneto decide the only way they can keep the clawed mutant’s mind in the past if if they can transfer Kitty’s phasing powers to another mutant. Together, along with Iceman, they track Rogue down to a mutant prison and break her out. In the theatrical cut, Kitty was still injured by Wolverine, but simply fought through the pain to keep his mind rooted in the 1970s, and thus kept the story relatively the same. Regardless of which version you watch, thanks to Wolverine’s intervention in the past, the threat of the Sentinels has been wiped out and Rogue is now living in peace with the other X-Men in the present era.
In addition to the ability-absorbing mutant’s sequence, The Rogue Cut will feature deleted moments from some of the film’s other major mutants, like Beast and Mystique. These added scenes will extend the film’s running time by approximately 17 minutes. There will also be plenty of extra material in the Blu-ray/DVD collection, including more featurettes and a gag reel.
Fans can buy X-Men: Days of Future Past-The Rogue Cut on July 14, but those attending Comic-Con will get the opportunity to see a special screening of the film tomorrow at 8 pm at the Reading Theater in San Diego’s Gaslamp District.
