Why Did Matthew Vaughn Quit X-Men: Days of Future Past?

Directed by Bryan Singer, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past starred Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and more. The story was written by Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn and focused on two time periods, with Logan traveling to 1973 to change history and prevent an event—this action by Logan results in destruction for both humans and mutants.

Upon release, the movie received positive responses from the audience and the critics for its story, visual effects, performances by the actors, and action sequences. Thematic elements used in X-Men: Days of Future Past were highly appreciated. But one question that has always bothered fans is why Matthew Vaughn decided to quit the movie when he was the one who wrote and created the story alongside Kinberg and Goldman. The filmmaker finally has an answer, and Halle Berry is connected to it.

Matthew Vaughn shares his reason for quitting X-Men: Days of Future Past

Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn directed X-Men: First Class, intended to be a franchise reboot and serve as a prequel to 2000’s X-Men. The movie focused on the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr and the origin of their groups, i.e., X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The movie was very well received by the critics as well as the audience upon release and also managed to make X-Men movies regain their popularity among fans. First Class’ success led to Vaughn returning to direct Days of Future Past until he decided to drop out of the project, citing ‘personal issues’ as the reason to quit.

Interestingly, before Days of Future Past, Vaughn was also set to direct 2006’s X-Men 3 after Bryan Singer decided to leave the franchise, but Vaughn ended up quitting the project. Speaking at New York ComicCon in 2023 (via ScreenRant), the filmmaker revealed the reason for his departure from X3:

One of the main reasons I quit X-Men 3, and this is a true story. Hollywood is political and odd. I went to an executive’s office, and I saw an X3 script. It was a lot fatter. I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ So I grabbed it, opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Kids die from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.’ I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is the Halle Berry script, because she hasn’t signed on yet. This is what she wants it to be. And once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.’

Vaughn continued to share that at that moment he thought that if the executives could do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm in the movie, he didn’t want to be a part of the movie. Brett Ratner took over to direct X-Men 3, only for Vaughn to return to the franchise for X-Men: First Class. He went onto share at the ComicCon, why he decided to leave X-Men: Days of Future Past,

Hollywood forgot to tell me after I wrote the damn thing that legally Bryan Singer got to direct it first.

The filmmaker chose to direct Kingsman: The Secret Service instead. The filmmaker also shared (via IGN) that it was a tough choice for him to pick between Days of Future Past and Kingsman, but he thought that someone else was going to wake up and do a fun spy story, and then his screenplay would go to waste. So he made a choice.

Halle Berry appreciates Matthew Vaughn’s stand against the studios for her

Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, who plays Storm in the X-Men universe, returned for X-Men 3, but none of the scenes from the script that Vaughn read were included in it. After the filmmaker revealed last year the reason he decided to leave the project the, it not only shocked the audience but also the actress who recently was made aware of the situation.

Berry took no time in appreciating the filmmaker as she took it to her social media and shared a video of Vaughn and wrote,

Ya just never know the shady shit going on behind your back! Thank you, Matthew Vaughn, for bringing the dark to light.

Halle Berry is one of the exceptionally talented actresses in the industry, and deceiving her is just low. The actress back in 2021 appeared on Jake’s Takes to promote her movie Bruised, which she directed, and was asked about one movie that she’d like to go back to direct, to which she said Catwoman. Berry explained,

If I can get ahold of that now, knowing what I know, having had this experience, and reimagine that world the way I reimagined this story. Bruised was written for a white Irish Catholic 25-year-old girl; I got to reimagine it. I wish I could go back and reimagine Catwoman and redo it.

The actress mentioned that she would have had Catwoman save the world like most male superheroes do, and not just save women from their faces cracking off. She stated that she’d have stakes higher and make it more inclusive of both men and women.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is available on Disney+, while Catwoman is available to stream on Max and Tubi.