Celebritysphere (Cowsphere) The X-Men Movie Halle Berry Was Allegedly Tricked Into Making

[Adanna]

Halle Berry’s fight to give her X-Men character Storm more depth and purpose has long been public, but new claims from director Matthew Vaughn suggest the actress may have been intentionally misled during the making of X-Men: The Last Stand. In a story Vaughn shared during a 2023 New York Comic Con panel, which has resurfaced in a big way, the Layer Cake director recounted why he walked away from directing the third X-Men instalment, and how it allegedly involved a studio bait-and-switch targeting Berry.

After his breakout success with 2004’s Layer Cake, Vaughn was tapped to replace Bryan Singer for the third X-Men movie. But his time with the franchise was short. According to Vaughn, he left the project after just a few meetings when he discovered what he believed was a dishonest scheme by Fox executives to secure Berry’s return. Vaughn recalled seeing a script on an executive’s desk featuring a dramatic opening scene with Storm in Africa, saving starving children by summoning a thunderstorm, a sequence that was never filmed or included in the final movie.

“That’s a pretty cool idea,” Vaughn said he told the exec. But the response shocked him. According to Vaughn, the executive called it “the Halle Berry script” and explained, “She hasn’t signed on yet, but this is what she wants it to be. So, once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.” That revelation, Vaughn said, made him realise how little creative control he would have and how manipulative the studio could be, even toward an Oscar-winning actress. “So, I quit at that point,” Vaughn admitted. “I figured I was mincemeat.”

Berry had previously gone public with her frustrations about the way Storm was portrayed in the first two X-Men films. She said she received backlash from fans who felt the character had been sidelined or reduced to throwaway lines. In interviews, Berry stressed she wasn’t necessarily asking for more screen time, just more substance.

“If I’m gonna be on for ten minutes,” she said, “can I say something important for ten minutes instead of ‘Where’s the plane?’”

Berry’s push led to a more significant role for Storm in The Last Stand, where the character stepped into a leadership role. However, the version of the film released in 2006, directed by Brett Ratner after Vaughn’s exit, still fell short of the dramatic African opening originally teased in the scrapped script. When Vaughn revealed the story publicly in 2023, Berry responded on Instagram with a short but telling message:

“Ya just never know the shady shit going on behind ya back,” she wrote. “Thank you, Matthew Vaughn, for bringing the dark to light.”

Berry’s response suggested she had no idea that the studio had allegedly used fake script pages to convince her to sign on.

​