Anna Paquin As Rogue In X-Men: First Class?

Jun 3, 2009 by Ross Miller

Anna Paquin - Rogue

Yesterday Screen Rant reported that director Bryan Singer is interested in returning to the X-Men franchise, six years after directing X2. Today we have another member of the X-Men team, Anna Paquin (who played Rogue in the first three movies), showing interest in doing another X-Men movie as well – in this case, the upcoming X-Men: First Class.

In a recent interview with IGN, Paquin talked a bit about the X-Men movies she’s starred in so far, and commented on her potential return to the series. When X-Men: First Class was first announced, Variety reported that the characters most likely to appear in the film would be Rogue, Iceman, Angel, Jubilee, Colossus and Shadowcat, amongst others. So does Paquin see herself returning as Rogue in the First Class spin-off?:

“Absolutely. Yeah… I would hope I could do a little bit more action next time, though. I kind of find it ironic that I did three big action films and did, actually, no action whatsoever. I mean I got some really amazing emotional story moments, but I didn’t really get to do the physical stuff.”

“You know, as much as I loved doing those films I was kind of like, ‘OK, so when do I get to beat someone up? When do I get to steal some powers?’ You know Sookie [Paquin's True Blood character] gets to do more action than Rogue ever did. So I’m just putting that out there. More action please, for next time.”

On top of the possible First Class character roster given by Variety, Screen Rant writer Rob Keyes speculated – based on the information we have about past and future X-Men projects – that the First Class line-up will probably include the likes of Beast, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Jean Grey and Storm. Sadly, according to X-Men producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, the ever-popular Gambit will not appear in X-Men: First Class, mainly due to continuity issues (although as Rob Keyes pointed out in his post, Donner’s reasoning doesn’t make much sense).

gambit and rogue taylor kitsch anna paquin

Screen Rant also reported on Gambit actor Taylor Kitsch’s suggestion of a possible X-Men spinoff featuring Gambit and Rogue. Kitsch said he would love to work with Paquin, and that it would be cool to have Gambit and Rogue in a film together. However, as Rob Keyes again pointed out, in the continuity of the existing X-Men movies, Rogue is introduced twenty years after Gambit’s appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which would mean (if we follow continuity) a huge age gap between the two lovers.

Personally, I think they should just leave out the Gambit/Rogue relationship, simply because it poses too much of a problem for the established X-Men continuity. Although I’m not opposed to the idea of more X-Men spin-offs (even though Wolverine didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped), I would much rather them just continue on with the continuity established by the X-Men trilogy. To put it simply: they should forge ahead and make X-Men 4 using all the characters we know already (including Paquin as Rogue) while hopefully introducing a few new ones.

What about you – would you like to see Anna Paquin reprise her role as Rogue in another X-Men movie? Do you think the character could fit into X-Men: First Class?

X-Men: First Class is currently slated for release sometime in 2010.

Source: IGN and Variety