How the studio tricked Halle Berry into appearing in X-Men 3

One of the most criticized superhero films in history, X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006) had almost no participation from Halle Berry as Stormwho was misled by a studio executive, according to the director Matthew Vaughn.

In the franchise, Vaughn commanded X-Men: First Class (2011) and was a screenwriter and producer of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), but completely abandoned The Final Showdown. According to the filmmaker during 2023 New York Comic Con (via ScreenRant), he saw a new copy of the 2006 film’s script which he noted was longer compared to the original.

At the time, a studio executive spoke to the director about an additional scene for Halle Berry. “One of the main reasons I left X-Men 3and this is a true story, [foi quando] I went to an executive’s office and saw a script for X3. It was much fatter,” she recalled.

I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ So I picked it up, opened the first page and it said: ‘Africa. Children dying from lack of water, and Storm creates a storm to save all these children.’

“I thought it was a really cool idea. I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is the script for Halle Berry, because she hasn’t signed it yet. This is what she wants it to be. And as soon as she signs it, we’re going to throw it in the trash,'” he continued Matthew Vaughn. “I thought, if you’re going to do this with an award-winning actress, Oscar who plays Storm, I give up.” Berry participated in X-Men 3: The Last Standbut no scene described by the director at the event made it into the final cut.