Appearing at New York Comic Con, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn revealed his surprising reason for leaving X-Men: The Last Stand during the mid-2000s. His departure was due to an alleged fake script that an executive meant to use as a ruse to get Halle Berry to star in the movie.

"I went into one of the executive’s offices and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter," Vaughn explained. Despite reassurances from the executive, Vaughn insisted, because as the director, he needed to always be aware of the script drafts. Upon breaking it open, he found a scene indicating a significant plot development for Storm, Berry's character.

The staged plot involved Storm in Africa saving children from dying of thirst using her weather manipulation powers. However, Vaughn revealed that this script was nothing more than bait. The plan was to use it to get Berry to sign on before discarding it.

Berry had already portrayed the character of Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm, in the X-Men movies. Disturbed by this deception towards an Oscar-winning actress, Vaughn walked away from the project. Despite initially regarding the Africa venture as a cool idea, the discovery of the script's true destiny prompted his instant departure.

The future of the deceptive script remains unclear, but Vaughn was subsequently replaced in the director's chair by Brett Ratner. Ratner, known for directing Rush Hour, took over, and Vaughn went on to direct X-Men: First Class years later. Despite its controversial roots, IGN’s review for X-Men: The Last Stand registered a fair rating of 6/10, citing it as fun and engaging, although not entirely satisfying.

Matthew Vaughn's shocking revelation offers an excellent opportunity to dive into the X-Men universe's complex chronology, not to mention the exciting news about a fresh X-Men movie reportedly under early development at Marvel.