When you think about the current run of superhero films, moviegoers can trace the start back to the first X-Men film. The film also marked the moment international audiences were introduced to everyone’s favorite showman Hugh Jackman. While some debated Fox’s decision, Jackman left a mark that spanned multiple X-Men and Wolverine movies. Two decades after its release, the Reminiscence star unveiled an unknown secret about the original film. The X-Men alum revealed the wild amount of footage removed from the original film shortly before its release date.
Hugh Jackman made this revelation while speaking with Collider about his latest film Reminiscence. The watershed moment’s runtime was over 90 minutes when it was released in 2000. But according to the actor, there could’ve been longer. Jackman seemed hesitant to speak on the original X-Men cut before saying:
I'm probably speaking out of school, Steve. But a week before it came out, I think it was 47 minutes longer.
Cutting almost an hour-worth of footage is a tall order especially a week before a film’s release. Generally, studios will test and review films months or weeks before it was to debut. So, 20th Century Fox must have been worried about X-Men’s box office potential to ask director Bryan Singer to chop some scenes last minute. But Hugh Jackman wasn’t done spilling more secrets about the original cut of the first X-Men movie.
Of course, as time has passed, the details may be a little foggy for Hugh Jackman, but he did recall some seeing a difference between the original cut and the theatrical version. Jackman recalled asking questions about certain scenes and characters in the last version of X-Men. The actor told Collider about seeing the final cut for the first time:
I may be exaggerating or under exaggerating... It was a lot. And maybe the week is an exaggeration, but I certainly... What we shot on, I remember going, ‘What happened to that scene and that character/ what? Wait, whoa.’ That movie from memory is about 100 minutes, I think. It was a lot longer, a lot longer, so that was definitely a big surprise to me.
Of course, X-Men wouldn’t be the first film to be chopped and recut before its final release. But from Hugh Jackman’s account, some important scenes and characters were left on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, cutting that much footage could’ve filled in some plot holes and unexplained moments from the first film. Maybe some moments and characters were fleshed out more in the original cut.
With that in mind, maybe one-day fans will be able to see the director’s cut of X-Men in the same vein as Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But until when or if that happens, fans of the first film can still watch it on Prime Video to rent.
