Rachael Leigh Cook has shared her regrets over not taking on the role of Rogue in 2000's X-Men movie, saying she recognized early on that she had made a mistake.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Sunday, Cook spoke about her decision to decline the role of Rogue in Bryan Singer's X-Men movie more than 20 years ago. The actress passed on the part because she wanted to avoid acting on a green screen but says she realized her mistake as soon as she saw the posters for the big-budget flick.
Cook noted the move had been a "huge misstep" in her career, as she reflected back on her decision to focus on independent movies. "I really thought what everyone told me was correct when they said, 'What we need to do now is make sure you're taken seriously,'" Cook told the publication, acknowledging that she "definitely did things for the wrong reasons."
The role of Rogue ultimately went to Cook's She's All That co-star Anna Paquin, who played the iconic Marvel character in four of the X-Men movies from 2000 to 2014. Paquin was slated to have a larger role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it was cut down before the movie hit the big screen, with Singer later releasing a straight-to-home video "Rogue Cut" of the film.
Now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, the future of the X-Men franchise has become an extremely hot topic considering the MCU made it all the way to Avengers: Endgame with nary a mutant. That spell might be set to last a little longer yet, but it doesn't mean that Marvel hasn't been busy laying the groundwork for the mutant superheroes to show up.
Phase 4 could be setting the stage for mutants in the MCU, so you may want to pay attention to Marvel's upcoming releases, particularly Eternals, which is coming out later this year, as well as 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — a movie that could potentially introduce Namor as a big-screen baddie.
Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.