X-Men Days of Future Past deleted scene Rogue Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin steals some extra screen time in X-Men: Days of Future Past the Rogue Cut. The Blu-ray features 17 minutes of deleted scenes including an unused Rouge subplot. Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) and old Magneto (Ian McKellen) rescue Rogue (Paquin) from the mutant hunting Sentinels, who are using her ability to absorb mutant powers to counteract the X-Men’s abilities.

The escape scene is spliced with young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) retrieving his helmet from the government, a scene that did make the cut despite not originally being in the script reveals a featurette. The subplot was cut because it was deemed superfluous explained screenwriter Simon Kinberg in an interview with Empire.

Kinberg explanation:

The Rogue subplot was originally there because I wanted a mission for the older Charles and Eric to do, something like Unforgiven – two last gunslingers, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman – that kind of a mission for them. I just loved the idea of that. Nothing in the story necessitated that, but just for a lark, I thought it would be a cool thing to see, because we may never see it again. When I initially wrote that, Kitty’s power was running out, and there was this super silly serum that was down in a farmhouse… it was terrible. I don’t even think it went to script, but it went to outline, and Matthew Vaughn said it was terrible, and he was right. Then I thought that if her power was winding down, they needed something stronger or someone who could take over her power. This came from a conversation with Matthew, which was about no-one having the same power as her but then realising there was someone who could take her power. I got chills. Rogue could be the McGuffin of that mission. They’d have to get Rogue out of some dark scary place, and that’s what happens. It’s a really nice sequence, and it’ll end up on Blu-ray some way down the line. But it does not service the main story. I thought it would increase the urgency and the stakes of the plot in the future, but it actually does the opposite, because it makes you feel like there is an answer out there. You think once Rogue gets here, we’ll have an unlimited amount of time. The ticking clock that we’d established with Kitty getting wounded and losing her powers… well, Rogue would show up and press stop on the clock. So for all of those narrative reasons, there was this ten-minute subplot that had to go.

X-Men: Days of Future Past the Rogue Cut release date: July 14, 2015