X-Men fans aren’t the only ones disturbed by the mediocrity that is 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Brett Ratner, as most of you know, stepped in when scheduling conflicts prevented Bryan Singer from continuing what he had started in two previous X-Men movies. And now Singer weighs in with what he felt having to turn his back on the mutant heroes he once thought of as family.
Singer speaks with Metro UK on behalf of his fairy-tale blockbuster Jack the Giant Slayer, which is opening overseas. But when he’s asked about the X-Men universe, and that time he walked away from it, the Usual Suspects writer-director lets the outlet in on a little secret:
I’ve never told anybody this, but I found the whole letting go of the characters for X-Men 3 so traumatising that a friend, who shall remain nameless, had to take me to a secret location and show me the reels so far, just so I could make my peace with it.”
And that’s understandable. Singer was still an impressionable young filmmaker when he found great success helming the original X-Men and its sequel. And the third X-Men movie wasn’t a reboot. Ratner used most of Singer’s original cast, playing in a sandbox Singer had to feel that he helped fill. But Singer, to be fair, had traded his X-Men world for a crack at Superman, opening the door for Ratner and, later, Matthew Vaughn.
All’s well that ends well, however, as Singer’s back in the X-Men fold for Days of Future Past, which is reuniting most of his original cast with Vaughn’s prequel mates. The sequel has been in pre-production, and is working toward a July 18, 2014 release date.
