Director Bryan Singer says Oscar-winner Anna Paquin was just one of the "extraneous" things in X-Men: Days of Future Past that had to be cut from the final version. The 31-year-old had reprised her role as Rogue in the forthcoming movie, but she has since been adjudged to be surplus to requirements.

Magneto X-Men Days of Future PastProfessor X X-Men Days of Future Past
Magneto [L] and Professor X [R] in Young and Old Forms

Singer told Entertainment Weekly that Paquin "was just one of the things that had to go," though said the True Blood star had done "a fantastic job" and "completely understood" that she had to be cut.

Paquin's main scene - which took a week to shot - had seen the actress star alongside Sir Ian McKellen's Magneto, Sir Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Shawn Ashmore's younger mutant Iceman.

Singer said the sequence would probably feature on the film's DVD.

"It's very disappointing, but she's very professional and she knows that stuff happens, particularly with material you shoot early on in production" said Singer, of Paquin, whom he called a "brilliant actress."

Watch the trailer for X-Men Days of Future Past:

The movie is out in the UK in May and sees Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character travel back in time to meet earlier incarnations of the Magneto and Professor X characters.

Singer directed the first two instalments of the X-Men series.

Paquin - who won the Oscar for best supporting actress for The Piano, when she was 11 - plays Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. Last July, HBO announced that the seventh and final season of the show would be broadcast next year.