In the early 2000s, the X-Men films jumpstarted the modern superhero movie boom. They grounded the more fantastical elements of the comic books into emotional, personal stories. However, one of the franchise’s biggest mistakes came in how it handled Storm, one of the group’s most popular and influential characters. No matter how you feel about Halle Berry’s casting, fans thought choosing such a high-profile actress would showcase the character as a central part of the narrative. Unfortunately, she became a secondary player in the endless Logan/Jean/Cyclops/Phoenix romantic entanglement. Turns out, the disrespect extended beyond the screen, as Berry was treated with the same disdain as her character.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director Matthew Vaughn revealed how studio executives’ alleged plan to trick Berry into officially joining X-Men: The Last Stand is what led him to leave the film. He was originally set to direct the third movie in the franchise when he discovered the plan during a meeting.
“I went into one of the executive’s office and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like, “What the hell is this draft?'” Vaughn said. “He went, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m the director. I’m worrying about this draft. He wouldn’t tell me, so I grabbed it literally—it was like a crazy moment—opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.’”
At this point in the film’s pre-production, many of the franchise’s other cast members had already signed on to the project, so executives were desperate to get Berry back. They could’ve actually offered her a better role in the film, but instead they chose to be predictably shady.
“[I went,] ‘What is this?’ [They said,] ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. I went, ‘OK, because she hasn’t signed up yet.’ ‘But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin,’” Vaughn explained. “I was like, ‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”
It’s great that Vaughn decided not to work with such awful people, but did he warn Halle about what they were planning to sell her? Did he give her a heads up that her big scene wasn’t a real scene? Obviously, Berry eventually agreed to be in the movie, but once again Storm plays second fiddle to Logan and Jean’s tortured love story.
If this story is true, it’s not surprising, as Hollywood executives aren’t known as the most honest people in the world. What’s so rage-inducing about it is, you know they never would’ve treated Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart this way. But just because she’s not willing to immediately jump on board with your stupid sequel, it’s perfectly OK for you to lie to the Oscar-winning Black star in your very successful film series.
X-Men: The Last Stand is widely considered to be the worst film in the franchise. In fact, it was so terrible, it was retconned out of existence by X-Men: Days of Future Past. Now that the X-Men are set to finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans have high hopes that Storm will get the story she deserves and hopefully some, or all, of that story takes place in Wakanda.