SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which is now playing in theaters
Halle Berry revealed in a recent interview with ComicBook.com while promoting her upcoming Netflix movie “The Union” that she was never asked by Ryan Reynolds to reprise her “X-Men” movie role of Storm in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The record-breaking Marvel blockbuster featured the surprise returns of several heroes from Fox’s Marvel era, from Jennifer Garner’s Elektra to Wesley Snipes’ Blade.
“No,” Berry said when asked if there were talks about playing Storm again in the latest Marvel movie. “Blake [Lively] asked me one time — I ran into her at a Marc Jacobs fashion show — and she said, ‘Would you ever be in my husband’s movie as Storm?’ I said, ‘Yeah, if he asked me,’ but he never asked me.”
Berry played Storm opposite Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in four “X-Men” movies: 2000’s “X-Men,” 2003’s “X2: X-Men United,” 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand” and 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” A couple of characters from these movies popped up in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” including Tyler Mane as Sabretooth and Aaron Stanford as Pyro. Berry’s Storm was not included, nor was Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier. The film’s director, Shawn Levy, previously said Stewart’s return was never considered or discussed during development.
Storm is one of Berry most iconic roles. She’s been open in past interviews about clashing with “X-Men” and “X2” director Bryan Singer on set during the making of the comic book films, famously firing back at him during one argument: “You can kiss my Black ass.”
“Bryan’s not the easiest dude to work with,” Berry previously told Variety. “I mean, everybody’s heard the stories — I don’t have to repeat them — and heard of his challenges, and what he struggles with…I would sometimes be very angry with him. I got into a few fights with him, said a few cuss words out of sheer frustration. When I work, I’m serious about that. And when that gets compromised, I get a little nutty.”
“Sometimes, because of whatever he’s struggling with, he just didn’t always feel present,” Berry added. “He didn’t feel there. And we’re outside in our little ‘X-Men’ stage freezing our ass off in Banff, Canada, with subzero weather and he’s not focusing. And we’re freezing. You might get a little mad.”
Singer was replaced by Brett Ratner on “X-Men: The Last Stand,” but the studio was originally courting filmmaker Matthew Vaughn. The director revealed last year that he rejected the offer to direct “The Last Stand” after discovering a studio executive’s plan to deceive Berry into reprising her role as Storm.
“One of the main reasons I quit ‘X-Men 3,’ and this is a true story,” Vaughn said. “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, and opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.’”
“I thought it was a pretty cool idea,” Vaughn continued. “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.’ I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit.”
Berry ended up returning as Storm in “X-Men: The Last Stand,” but the film did not include any scenes set in Africa as the script Vaughn read included. “The Last Stand” did, however, give Storm a more prominent role as the character takes over as the head of Charles Xavier’s school for mutants after his death.
