While we look at the fallen state of the once-vaunted X-Men franchise and wonder what went wrong, the truth is it was once in far worse shape. The first two movies were wildly successful, in particular X-2 which is still a critical favorite, but X-Men: The Last Stand continues to be a joke to this day. With Brett Ratner of all people directing, a cast of thousands, and a broken adaptation of Chris Claremont’s classic Dark Phoenix Saga, there are no shortage of things that went wrong. But the one thing that almost everybody remembers as the biggest fail of all? Vinnie Jones as the Juggernaut.
Juggernaut aka Cain Marko, was recently seen in Deadpool 2 and while that version still holds much to be desired, the version played by Jones in The Last Stand is way worse. He barely has anything to do, despite being one of their greatest and most powerful adversaries, his costume looks absurd, and he has an English accent which is just…wrong. The one thing he’s remembered for is the now-classic “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”, a line that came absolutely out of fucking nowhere.
Looking back in an interview with CBM, Jones admits the role was shit, and not at all what he signed up for…
“I loved the role, but hopefully you can put it fucking right here, mate. 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. Brett Ratner basically dissolved the character. I was in my fucking 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?’”
After Bryan Singer left the franchise to direct Superman Returns, Jones’ friend Matthew Vaughan was slated to take over. It was at that point Jones signed on for the long-term role. Vaughan didn’t stick around long, though, and Ratner was brought in we know that turned out badly. Vaughan did eventually come back a few years later for X-Men: First Class, but the damage caused by Ratner set the X-Men back a great deal.
Jones continued, “It wasn’t the same Juggernaut as I signed on for. They took his storyline away, they’d taken his character away, his dialogue. I had two big meetings with Brett about it, and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s coming. They’re writing stuff for you as we speak’ and it never fucking happened. Disappointment wise, that was probably one of the biggest. What’s upsetting is some of the fans blame me! It was fucking nothing to do with me! That role, I didn’t sign up for. The Juggernaut you saw was not the Juggernaut I signed on for with Matthew Vaughn, I’ll tell you that now. It upset me.”
Jones definitely shouldn’t be blamed for Juggernaut sucking so badly, but he’s not completely off the hook, either.