One of the pillars of Fox's early X-Men movies was Anna Paquin's Rogue. Although her role diminished over time, Rogue's personal journey was an important part of those first three films. The last we saw of Rogue was a brief cameo in X-Men: Days of Future Past, though she had a more significant role in The Rogue Cut of that film. Anna Paquin has been absent in the X-Men films since then, but given the complex sci-fi elements and laissez faire approach to continuity of Fox's X-Men films, there's always a chance you'll see someone again. However, Anna Paquin thinks it's unlikely that she will reprise her role as Rogue, as she explained:
If there was a way that it made sense for my character to be in the world, of course. I feel like that's my film family, because I've been making those movies since I was 16. But there's been so many spinoffs and reboots and TV shows, so I'm not sure where Rogue or the other original characters fit into the current plotlines, so it's probably not going to happen.
It sounds like Anna Paquin is totally willing to play Rogue again if the opportunity arises. She was a part of the X-Men films for a long time and from a young age, so it is cool to hear that she considers that world to be her film family. However, as she told Variety, she probably won't reprise her role as Rogue not because she doesn't want to, but because it does not seem likely that there will be an opportunity to do so. Basically, even though the X-Men universe has grown both on the big screen with films like Deadpool and Logan and on the small screen with shows like Legion and The Gifted, there isn't an obvious and natural place for Rogue.
It may be a bummer for Rogue fans, but Anna Paquin is probably right. X-Men: Days of Future Past was basically a swan song for the original X-Men cast with the exception of Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, but their time as mutants appears to be over now too. Given the way the story has gone, it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Rogue to show up now. For the moment, the focus is all on the new cast that started in X-Men: First Class and will appear next year in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. That said, the X-Men films have never been bound by a strict adherence to logical continuity, so you can never say never, and a Deadpool 3 or X-Force cameo could work since those films feel sort of adjacent to everything else.
The other elephant in the room is the fact that all of the current cast's time as the mutant heroes may be drawing to a close. With the Disney-Fox deal all but finalized, the X-Men are probably headed to the MCU, at which point recasting seems likely. But even if we get a new Rogue in the MCU, Anna Paquin will always be the original Rogue and a vital part of the film that helped usher in the superhero movie era.
Although her time as a mutant may be done, Anna Paquin still has big things on the horizon. Next year, she stars opposite Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and a murderer's row of talent in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. For movies hitting theaters this year, check out our release guide.
