The X-Men franchise is bigger in Hollywood than ever, expanding from the big screen to TV as it also gears up for the film X-Men: Apocalypse and several spinoff films. The series already mashed up its new and old casts in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past , and is looking to jump around eras again between the '60s-set Hellfire, '80s-set Apocalypse and the likely-'80s-set Legion. There's also a new, untitled Wolverine movie and standalone films about Gambit and Deadpool on the horizon.

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That leaves many, many opportunities to weave back in old, familiar X-Men characters in these new projects. Though she's said she won't appear in the Channing Tatum-starring Gambit , Anna Paquin does say she's game to pick up the Rogue mantle and appear in future X-Men properties."I have had a great time on all of those films that I've been part of. Those are people that are very dear to me," she told IGN while promoting her new animated film The Good Dinosaur. "If it happens that that's something that makes sense for whichever of the 700 different X-Men projects that are happening which I personally can't keep track of then that's great. If not, they're still fun to watch."When the subject of her returning to X-Men recently came up on Twitter, Paquin jokingly responded that she "absolutely" would if she could fly as Rogue. At the mention of the "fly" comment during our interview, she immediately jumped to clarify herself."Look, I've always said that. I've been saying that since they cast me when I was 16 -- like, 'Do I get to fly?'" Paquin said. "I made some flippant remark on Twitter about if I get to fly that was like breaking news. I'm like, OK, oh for god's sake. Humor doesn't translate that well in written word."That clarification actually is good news for fans, because Paquin claims she would return for a much less active part."I would come back and do whatever," she said. "These are people I've known for half my life. I have a lot of love for my X-Men family. I realistically wouldn't really care what it was if they were getting the whole gang back together kind of thing. On a side note personally, I would really like to fly because flying's cool."Reflecting back on the coolest things she's gotten to do as Rogue , Paquin said, "I got to do one really fun stunt in X-Men 2 which was all this wire work when the X-Jet gets crashed into and I get sucked out, and I got to spend several months hanging from wires on the ceiling in stunt rehearsals. They were going to do it at the very beginning of production and then they were like, 'Actually, maybe we'll save it to the last day.' I was like, awesome, thank you, great vote of confidence."Paquin's Rogue was slated to have a larger role in the recent X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it was largely cut out before the movie hit the big screen. Director Bryan Singer ultimately released a straight-to-home video "Rogue Cut" of the movie with those scenes included, but Paquin said she was totally fine being omitted."Whatever man. I think other people were more offended by that. I'm like, 'I don't want to be in the plot line that doesn't work!' Look, don't hire Bryan Singer and then criticize him for making creative choices in his edit that will make the film good or not good. This is why you hire somebody like that," she said. "He knows what he's doing. He called me and was like, 'So blah, blah, blah,' and I was like, 'OK!' And then everyone else was like, 'Oh my god, let's go to war for you.' I'm like, that's so incredibly sweet, but I'm fine. [laughs] And I've known him since I was a teenager. It's all good now, please stop attacking."

The Good Dinosaur hit theaters on November 25.Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Follow her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz