Simon Kinberg clarifies Anna Paquin's Rogue status in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

X-Men Days of Future Past writer and producer Simon Kinberg has been busy as of late because director Bryan Singer has been and will continue to be absent for all promotions for the Fox film thanks to the sexual abuse lawsuit. So Kinberg has been answering the questions about the mutant sequel, and he fielded some recently about Anna Paquin aka Rogue.

Kinberg spoke to Crave Online, which asked him to clarify her status for the picture after reports that Singer pulled her from the movie and then a subsequent report that she would appear in it:

"I just wanted to see Ian [McKellan] and Patrick [Stewart] on a mission together. So I took them away from the main plot of the movie so that they could go off and do something, and [Rogue] was the MacGuffin of that mission. It was a perfectly fine 10 minutes of the film that didn't fit the film. So we pulled her out of the movie and pulled that plot out of the film. I can't speak to any other rumors about any other way she could appear in the film, but I can tell you that the main plot that we shot with her, we pulled out of the movie."

Unfortunately, that didn't do much to clear things up; in fact, the situation is only cloudier now. Regardless, Kinberg also addressed if Rogue's appearance was a way to make up for her getting cured during X-Men: The Last Stand:

"No, I have plenty of residual guilt from The Last Stand and this movie in many ways was like my chance to tell a better X-Men story. Though I'm very proud of what we did with X-Men: First Class but the two biggest stories for me growing up were Dark Phoenix and Days of Future Past. Those were the ones that I loved, so what I wanted to do with Dark Phoenix is different [than] what the movie ended up being. That's a whole other interview and conversation, but on this one we had a lot more creative freedom and more encouragement to be loyal to the original books. At any rate, it wasn't that."

How, if it all, do you think Rogue would appear in Days of Future Past? Let us know in the comments below.