‘X-Men’ Actor Admits His Disappointment in the Fox Series: ‘I Was Gutted’
Fans have had a contentious relationship with how Fox has handled its Marvel properties. Although the studio has released a handful of clear winners, many of its X-Men movies in particular have proven divisive among comics fans.
According to reports, Fox has had a general disregard for the source material. Now one X-Men actor admits he was left very disappointed by how his role turned out.
‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ features the mighty Juggernaut as a minor villain
While Fox later developed spin-offs and prequels, the studio’s X-Men journey began with a single trilogy. Released in 2006, X-Men: The Last Stand was the company’s first of two attempts to adapt the comics’ “Dark Phoenix saga” to the big screen. And it featured the big-screen debut of several beloved mutants.
Among them was the supervillain known as Juggernaut. In the pages of Marvel Comics, the character has a long and rich history. Born Cain Marko, his origin story involves an abusive family life and a domineering relationship with his stepbrother, Charles Xavier aka Professor X. So Juggernaut fans were excited to hear he would make his big-screen debut.
Actor Vinnie Jones said his role was drastically changed and reduced
But the movie version of Juggernaut stripped away all that backstory. Instead, Magneto (Ian McKellen) recruits the mutant to join his cause, reducing Juggernaut to little more than the muscle. This wasn’t the case when Vinnie Jones (Snatch) signed on for the movie, he told Comic Book Movie.
I loved the role, but… I basically got mugged off. Matthew Vaughn signed me up, and it was a great role and a great script, and Juggernaut was a great character. I signed up for three of them, and that will show you how serious I was about it. [Director] Brett Ratner basically dissolved the character. I was in my f***ing trailer half the time. It’s one of the most disappointing jobs I’ve been on as far as, you know, “What am I doing here?”
As Jones said, Matthew Vaughn was set to follow his directorial debut — 2004 crime thriller Layer Cake — with the X-Men sequel. Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) eventually took over the project. Vaughn would later helm the reboot/prequel X-Men: First Class in 2011.
Juggernaut will certainly get another chance in the MCU
To make matters worse, Jones said that some fans blamed him for Juggernaut’s portrayal. The actor maintains Ratner promised him new material after script changes drastically reduced his role. But that never happened, and fans were left with a caricature of the iconic supervillain.
“I know what it means to the fans, and I felt like I was a bit of a scapegoat as no one ever told my side of it,” Jones told Comic Book Movie. “Nobody ever stood up and said, ‘Hold on a minute, we completely whitewashed Vinnie’s character.’ Basically, I was an extra, mate. That’s how I felt. I was gutted, to be honest.”
Juggernaut’s big-screen debut might have fallen short of expectations. But the character did return years later in Deadpool 2. Again though, the movie didn’t really explore his backstory. With the X-Men likely heading for a reboot within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, perhaps Juggernaut will finally get his due next time he appears on screen.
