Trivia
The in the scene where Beast was hanging upside down and reading an issue of Scientific American, that issue of the magazine was real.
Longstanding X-Men comic-book icons seen in the film include the Danger Room and (as hologram within) a giant, mutant-hunting Sentinel robot.
Angel's wings were initially too heavy for Ben Foster, and were remade from foam.
Storm & Callisto engage in two battles during the film. In the comics, Storm defeated Callisto to become leader of The Morlocks.
For one sequence, a 2,500-foot replica of the Golden Gate Bridge was built.
This is the first film that features the original five X-Men: Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Jean Grey. However, all five are never together onscreen.
X-Men co-creator Stan Lee and popular writer Chris Claremont have cameos in the film's opening scene, as neighbors in Jean Grey's old neighborhood. Respectively, they are credited as "Waterhose man" and "Lawnmower man".
Ellen Page is the third actress to play Kitty Pryde in the X-Men movies. The others are Sumela Kay (X-Men) and Katie Stuart (X2). All three actresses are also all Canadian-born.
Filmmakers considered utilizing the Beast character since the first X-Men movie, but reportedly due to budget constraints he ultimately was not used. However, in X2 someone identified as Hank McCoy does appear on a television screen in a cameo role.
The casting of Kelsey Grammer and Vinnie Jones as the Beast and the Juggernaut, respectively, was one of Matthew Vaughn's main contributions to the project. Ellen Page and Ben Foster were brought in by Brett Ratner.
Brett Ratner came into the project nine weeks before shooting began.
The whirlwind wire-stunt Halle Berry performed in a fight scene caused her to vomit because of her motion sickness.
The final battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants was originally scripted to take place in Washington, D.C., but Ratner opted to change the location.
The movie features the "fastball special" in the Danger Room, the famous tag-team move in Marvel Comics between Colossus and Wolverine, where the super-strong and much larger Colossus throws Wolverine at their opponent -- in this case, a Sentinel. [7] The same move is attempted again later in the movie, albeit with different results, against Magneto.
Cameron Bright, who is a "cure" for humanity in the sci-fi film Ultraviolet, played a "cure" for the mutant gene in X3.
All the actors (excluding Kelsey Grammer) performed their own stunts.
This movie marks the third time Kelsey Grammer and Patrick Stewart have worked together. Grammer first appeared with Stewart in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect", and Stewart guest starred in an episode of Frasier.
Although he appears in only one scene, this is the second movie in which Anthony Heald (FBI Mystique Interrogator) and Famke Janssen (Jean Grey/Phoenix) are co-castmembers. They first appeared together in Deep Rising.
While Cain Marko, a.k.a. the Juggernaut, is Charles Xavier's stepbrother in the canonical Marvel Comics stories, no relationship between the two is acknowledged in the film. The official press notes, however, describe him as "the unstoppable giant who is also Professor Xavier's stepbrother". Additionally, Juggernaut is a mutant in the film, but in the comics, his power derives from a mystic jewel, known as the Crimson Ruby of Cyttorak, that is bound to his soul (though this is a topic of contention since the ruby was lost). In the Ultimate Marvel version of the character, Juggernaut is a mutant with apparently no connection to Professor Xavier. The movie version seems to be more in line with this.
The Juggernaut's line to Kitty Pryde -- "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, *****!" -- alludes to a popular parody video based on Juggernaut's character from an episode of X-Men: The Animated Series. [6] [7]
In the opening, Professor Xavier tells Magneto that misusing power is not right. That is a central theme of the book The Once and Future King by T. H. White. In the beginning of X2, Magneto reads an old copy of the book in his prison cell, and Professor X uses the book as a teaching tool in the end of that movie.
The characters Spike and Phat, from Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's cult favorite comic book X-Statix, make brief appearances.
There is a scene at the Institute in which three identical girls are walking in the backgound. These could be the remaining Stepford Cuckoos and in the book, it is confirmed that they are the proteges of Emma Frost.
Rebecca Romijn and Ben Foster previosly worked together on The Punisher in 2004. The Punisher is another Marvel property.
Contrary to rumors, Jubilee does not show her powers in the movie and her role was even smaller than her role in X2, down to a cameo.
Psylocke appears only once in the middle of the film and at the end. She displays the power to bend into the shadows (one of her Crimson Dawn powers in the comics) but nothing else, not even her famous psychic knife.
The voice ordering soldiers around inside the Alcatraz armory is none other than Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket and Mail Call fame.
Originally, Gambit was cast in the movie, but had a very small role. When the actor summoned for Gambit denied the offer, the character was removed. Some sources say the offer went to Josh Holloway, who also denied because the character was too similar to his Lost character, Sawyer. However, when Magneto adresses the Brotherhood in the forest a man can be seen standing behind Juggernaut and Kid Omega. It is unclear, who this is, but due to the way he looks, it might well be Gambit.
While Beast is a senior X-Men member in X3, he is seen in human form in X2.
This is the first movie where Bobby Drake (Iceman) is shown in his ice form while fighting Pyro.
The scene with Jean Grey using her telekinetic power to hold back Cyclops' optic blasts comes directly from the pages of the X-Men (Uncanny X-Men #132). Jean's decision to return to her parents' home is also directly from the comics (Uncanny X-Men #135).
The lizard-like mutant is claimed to be a mutant named Anole, though nothing in the credits or the novel confirm this.
