Why You Should Be Thankful BRYAN SINGER is directing X-MEN: APOCALYPSE


bryan singer banner

That’s right.  Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men and Days of Future Past, will direct X-Men: Apocalypse.

We should thank our lucky stars that our main man Bryan Singer is back, as he’s somehow managed to fall back into place with Fox’s X-Men franchise, a property he left in 2004 after Warner Bros. offered him a gig directing Superman Returns (a movie that’s far better than any fanboy criticism would lead you to believe). Up to that point, Singer had created two X-Men movies, both of which were unanimously praised. They represent the birth of the modern superhero move craze, although I suppose Wesley Snipes and his take on Blade first tested the tepid waters in 1998. Still, no other caped do-gooder film had ever tried to meld the world of comic books and reality in such an earnest, believable way.

Hell, Singer’s X-Men flicks have been the blueprint for nearly every other modern comic book movie. Even Christopher Nolan admits that the first X-Men movie inspired his Batman adaptations. So to all fanboys who’ve recently dismissed Singer’s contributions to fandom (simply because the director cast a Wolverine who’s too tall, uses costumes that are too leathery, or weakened the powers of the adapted heroes), check yourself! This man created the modern superhero genre and he deserves his respect. Obligatory: #IBelieveInBryanSinger.

x-men bryan singer apocalypse

Bryan Singer first returned to the X-Men franchise as a Producer for the Matthew Vaughn directed film X-Men: First Class. After Fox suffered two horrendous mutie flicks (X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine), they sought Singer, hoping to reestablish a relationship that had once propelled the pair to the forefront of summer blockbusters.

Which, to go off track a little bit, is really a strange thing to think about. Singer’s X-Men movies started this craze, and after the second film, he had every intention of adapting the Dark Phoenix Saga into two films, which would’ve been produced at the same time. There’s no doubt in my mind that they would’ve been massive hits, and probably would’ve dictated the course of superhero films for the rest of the decade. BUT… Singer was lured away by Warner Bros., who offered him the opportunity to direct his favorite superhero: Superman. Although Singer stated he’d return to Fox for his Phoenix tale after he finished Superman, Fox was unwilling to wait, and the studio handed over the reigns of the X-Men to Rush Hour director Brett Ratner.

We’ve all seen what a fiasco that was. Ratner, with no better story telling tactics at his disposal, deliberately massacred the X-Men mythos in order to create emotional highs and lows for the movie, which completely missed their mark. In his pursuit he murdered cornerstone characters Professor X, Jean Grey, and Cyclops. Ratner even went on record, claiming that this was the “end of the franchise”, which seems to be a nonsensical choice, since this series was never intended to be a trilogy. It’s simply lazy storytelling, with hopes to start a Wolverine spinoff series.

brett ratner x-men

Well, X-Men: The Last Stand released in 2006 and it was most definitely the most disappointing in the franchise. Just a year prior Christopher Nolan introduced the world to his version of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and successfully supplanted X-Men as Hollywood’s premier realistic superhero franchise.

But that’s enough rambling. Where were we?

Ahh, that’s right, Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise! He joined X-Men: First Class as a producer, and for some reason, that film’s director decided not to return for the sequel Days of Future Past, and Singer immediately filled the vacancy. Although, I can’t help but suspect that Vaughn was ousted, either because Singer passionately wanted to direct this new project, OR because Vaughn wasn’t comfortable with the direction of the film. He’d just created a brand new version of these classic characters, which we all assumed would continue on its own way, unencumbered by the nonsense of the Original films. But Days of Future Past is absolutely dependent on the older cast members, older story threads, and a litany of annoying canon that may have turned Vaughn away.

In any case, Singer is here to stay! Days of Future Past looks amazing, although it does seem overly dependent on the classic cast (unfortunate, since First Class steered the franchise towards new and exciting tales) and Singer will definitely direct X-Men: Apocalypse.

We’re still sitting on a possible scoop regarding Apocalypse in Days of Future Past. We were the first to confirm that he would be a villain in future X-Men movies, after all, but we want to double/triple/quadruple check this scoop before we unleash it.

bryan singer x-men apocalypseSOURCE: CB