Although Hugh Jackman kicked off his acting career appearing in various Australian and UK theatre and film productions, he made his first big splash to the world at large playing Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men. 23 years later, the Marvel Comics mutant superhero is still Jackman’s most well-known character, and he’ll be putting the adamantium claws back on soon for Deadpool 3. However, for nearly a decade now, multiple sexual assault allegations have come out against Bryan Singer, who directed Jackman in the original two X-Men movies, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. Jackman has now commented on whether or not these allegations have tainted his views on the franchise.
While Bryan Singer was accused back in 1997 of asking minors to film a shower scene for his movie Apt Pupil, between 2014 and 2019, he was the subject of multiple lawsuits claiming he sexually assaulted minors, with these incidents allegedly stretching back to the late 1990s, all of which the filmmaker has denied. While X-Men and 2003’s X2: X-Men United were among the key movies that helped popularize the superhero movie genre at the beginning of the new millennium, Singer’s involvement in them has caused their legacy to be reexamined. When The Guardian asked Hugh Jackman if he looks at these X-Men movies differently now given what’s been said about Singer, the actor answered:
You know, that’s a really, really complicated question. There’s a lot of things at stake there. X-Men was the turning point, I believe, in terms of comic-book movies and I think there’s a lot to be proud of. And there’s certainly questions to be asked and I think they should be asked. But I guess I don’t know how to elegantly answer that. I think it’s complex and ultimately I look back with pride at what we’ve achieved and what momentum that started.
There’s no question that without X-Men, Hugh Jackman wouldn’t have been catapulted to Hollywood stardom, or it would have at least taken him longer to do so. So while Jackman wasn’t willing to provide any specific commentary on the Bryan Singer allegations, it does sound like he’s now seeing the X-Men movies through more of a mixed lens. On the one hand, he acknowledges that “question should be asked,” indirectly referring to Singer’s conduct, but on the other hand, he’s pleased with how these cinematic products turned out and the role they played in making superhero movies Hollywood mainstays.
During this same interview, Hugh Jackman also addressed a claim from 2020 that X2: X-Men United was a tumultuous production, including Bryan Singer allegedly being under the influence of narcotics while behind the camera. It was also said at the time that many X2 cast members nearly quit after Jackman was injured shooting a risky stunt. Several months after that initial report came out, Halle Berry (Storm) acknowledged that she fought with Singer on several occasions, and she more recently said that he’s “not the easiest dude to work with.” Here’s what Jackman said when he was asked about his direct experience working with Singer:
This was my first movie in America, you gotta understand; it was all so new to me. I think it’s fair to say that … There are some stories, you know … I think there are some ways of being on set that would not happen now. And I think that things have changed for the better.
Bryan Singer initially left the X-Men franchise after X2 to work on Superman Returns, leading to Brett Ratner helming X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Then, as mentioned earlier, he returned for X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse, though it was Simon Kinberg who ended up concluding the main X-Men film series with Dark Phoenix. Singer was most recently credited as the director of 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, but he was fired just a few weeks before filming was set to conclude and replaced by Dexter Fletcher, who’s credited as an executive producer. Singer had also been lined up to helm a Red Sonja movie, but he was dropped from that project in March 2019.
There hasn’t been any word on what’s going on in Bryan Singer’s professional or personal lives lately, but should any notable updates on those fronts come in, we’ll pass them along. As far as Hugh Jackman goes, we’ll see him back in action as Wolverine when Deadpool 3 is released on November 8, 2024 as part of the upcoming Marvel movies slate. In the nearer future, you’ll be able to watch him in The Son, which opens in theaters on January 20.
