X-Men: The Last Stand is among the least favorably remembered of Fox’s mutant movies, but one particularly maligned moment is less funny in hindsight.
X-Men: The Last Stand isn’t remembered nearly as positively as its two predecessors, but the film’s cringiest joke goes from awkward to sad with inside info from the actor who delivered it. Fox’s Marvel movies had ups and downs, but the third X-Men movie is particularly disappointing given that it follows the still-classic X2 and, for a time, closed the book on the original X-Men cast members. The movie introduced far too many new characters without time to develop them, including Juggernaut, who gets a few short scenes.
Juggernaut isn’t usually the most intellectually complex character in Marvel comics, but his unique look and powerful set of abilities have ingrained him as a fan-favorite villain. The version presented in X-Men: The Last Stand, however, is best known for repeating a line from an at-the-time popular meme, which at the time seemed cringy at best. However, insight from actor Vinnie Jones makes the whole situation more sad than anything.
Juggernaut’s Meme Line Was Incredibly Awkward In X-Men: The Last Stand
Movies lines that reference jokes and memes popular when the movie is written or filmed almost never age well, and that’s doubly true when the line’s crassness feels oddly out of place. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Juggernaut runs into a prison to kill a target of interest, and he’s followed by X-Men hero Kitty Pryde. She uses her phasing ability to pull him halfway into the floor, after which he looks at her and remarks, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the Juggernaut, b****!”
The line is a reference to a 2005 parody video in which footage from X-Men: The Animated Series is dubbed over with absurd and often crass lines. In the video, Juggernaut says the same line. At the time, hearing the movie in live-action seemed like cringy fan service. Now, 18 years later, far removed from the meme’s source having any relevancy, the line seems bizarrely out of place, irrelevant, and at odds with the tone of the rest of the movie.
Actor Vinnie Jones Hates What His Juggernaut Became As Much As Anyone
Going on looks alone, it’s hard to argue that actor Vinnie Jones wasn’t a great pick to play Cain Marko, aka the Juggernaut. The villain – who’s not a mutant in Marvel Comics but appears to be one in the Fox timelines – has the uncanny ability to keep his momentum no matter what once he starts moving. Jones has the size and intimidating presence to nail Juggernaut, but the actor is quite unhappy with what ended up on-screen. Speaking about his experience in an interview with Yahoo! UK, Jones expresses regret with the joke that rewrites turned Juggernaut into.
A cringy line is one thing, but an actor who signed up for something very different having to deliver it is another.
According to Jones, Juggernaut originally had a much larger and more serious role in X-Men: The Last Stand. When Matthew Vaughn exited the project and was replaced by Brett Ratner, Juggernaut’s role was reduced to a cameo, and the meme-inspired line, which Jones doesn’t like, was added at the last minute. A cringy line is one thing, but an actor who signed up for something very different having to deliver it is another.
According to Jones in the aforementioned interview, he was offered a cameo role in Deadpool & Wolverine but turned it down.
Why Deadpool 2’s Juggernaut Works So Much Better Than X-Men 3’s
Juggernaut is re-introduced in the R-rated Deadpool 2, this time a full CGI character voiced by Ryan Reynolds (with significant distortion). This version is remarkably more crude and explicit than the version seen in X-Men: The Last Stand, yet it doesn’t come off as awkward or problematic. The difference, of course, is in the context. While Jones’ line seems to come out of nowhere and seems like little more than misplaced fan service, Deadpool 2‘s Juggernaut is characterized as disgusting from the start and inhabits a world with a matching sense of humor.
It’s a shame Jones regrets his time in X-Men: The Last Stand as Juggernaut, as seeing such an iconic character in live-action for the first time should be something to celebrate and be proud of. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if he’s particularly interested in revisiting the role. If the MCU’s X-Men reboot sees it fit to take a crack at Cain Marko, here’s to hoping it’s done with a more consistent vision than Fox’s first attempt.