In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, director Bryan Singer is dropping out of all press/promotion for his upcoming film, X-Men: Days of Future Past. The decision to do so makes complete sense given the very serious lawsuit that he’s now facing, which accuses Singer of sexually abused a teenage boy back in the late 1990s. Of course, the director has denied the claims but, as of now, he’s fighting to assert his innocence, so it’s understandable why he wouldn’t want to focus on talking to journalists.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things will be clearing up any time soon for the director, either, as the lawyer who filed the lawsuit says that several more are coming next week, targeting both Singer and other Hollywood power players.
20th Century Fox has yet to comment on the whole affair, but it should be obvious that the studio wants to distance their highly-anticipated sequel from all of this negative attention. Fox has a lot riding on X-Men: Days of Future Past. Not only is it an incredibly ambitious film, but it’s also one of the most expensive comic book movies ever made. If this lawsuit ends up hurting box office returns, Fox would be placed in a highly uncomfortable situation, given that Singer is already contracted to work on Days of Future Past follow-up, X-Men: Apocalypse.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking sides here. I firmly believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty (although, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence against the director). It’s just unfortunate that X-Men: Days of Future Past is now going to be overshadowed by all of this. Especially because it looks like it’s going to be a really great film.
X-Men: Days of Future Past opens on May 23rd.
