Screenwriter says Rogue was almost in James Mangold’s The Wolverine

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

We all know that a script can change a lot from when the idea is originally conceived to when the filmmakers are set to start filming. Hell, sometimes things change (or the script isn't even finished) while they are filming. Creative Screenwriting recently talked to one of the writers for THE WOLVERINE (Mark Bomback) and when he was asked if there were any characters or concepts he wanted to use but didn't, the writer revealed that he tried very hard to get Anna Paquin's Rogue into the film:

I love Rogue and I just think that there’s something about this idea that Rogue is tremendously empathetic but incapable of safe human contact. That always moved me and I thought that’s what really got to the heart of what makes the X-Men franchise so unique. So I was trying to do something with Rogue in the script. I even had a set of ideas that the old man possessed a version of Rogue’s power and that was going to be indicated by a white stripe in his hair. Eventually it became very goofy, and I threw it out because I started realizing throughout the script that it became more problematic than cool. It’s no accident to me that in the first X-Men film the first two mutants that you really see who have a connection are Wolverine and Rogue. There’s something special between them, so I was trying to bring Rogue into it, but it just didn’t get there. I regretted there wasn’t a way to figure it out, but when I look at the film now, it would have stuck out if we tried to shoehorn her in there just because it was another character from the universe.

I agree with Bomback that Rogue probably would have stuck out if she was in the film. THE WOLVERINE doesn't have a ton of mutants in it, and having Rogue in the film might have made it feel more like a new X-Men movie instead of a solo Logan adventure. Some of these comic book movies have annoyed fans by having too many characters that are underutilized or are there just for the sake of making some nerd squeal, so it's nice to hear a writer say that while he may have liked an idea, he didn't want to force it into the film if it wasn't going to work. Kudos to him.