The most popular response to our **X-Men: Days Of Future Past **cover reveals on Twitter was, "OMG!" Only slightly less popular was, "Wait, how come Rogue gets an Empire cover when she's not in the movie any more?" Inside the issue - on shelves now - director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg shine a little more light on the situation.
"It was one real sequence in the movie," explains Kinberg. "We felt like it was taking tension out of the main story drive."
This is the sole scene Singer revealed he had cut from the film during the editing process a month ago, much to the chagrin of fans who wanted to see more of Anna Paquin's touchy mutant, especially as she is apparently a survivor of the Sentinel apocalypse along with Ian McKellen's Magneto, Patrick Stewart's Professor X, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and the rest.
"It does not mean that we won't see her in the film," Singer adds, enigmatically. "Also, I hope to make the sequence available on the DVD as she was quite wonderful in it. She is an important part of the X-Men family. I 'm very pleased she will remain as one of Empire's anniversary covers."
The most important thing to note there is that, "it does not mean that we won't see her in the film." Presumably, even with Rogue's key scene removed, the character will have a background role of some capacity.
As you probably know by now, Days Of Future Past finds Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine and the current X-team confronting a dark alternate future where mutants are an endangered species, tracked down, imprisoned or killed thanks to Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage)’s Sentinel program and an overwhelming level of distrust from regular humans.
They boldly plan to send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to the First Class era (or, to be specific, 1973) to convince the younger Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and the rest to work together to stop the threat at its source.
You can find out much more about X-Men: Days Of Future Past in the new issue of Empire, out today. To make sure you get the specific cover you want, browse this gallery below and then head to our subscriptions website.
We expect a new trailer for the film soon, given that the release dates for X-Men: Days Of Future Past are May 22 in the UK and May 23 in the US.