Bryan Singer isn’t having a great couple of months. Not only was he unceremoniously kicked off the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, but was then caught up in the Hollywood sexual misconduct controversy when he was accused in a lawsuit of assaulting a teenager during a 2003 yacht party. Perhaps conscious that his name is a liability right now, he’s approached FX and asked for his Executive Producer credit to be removed from season 2 of Noah Hawley’s Legion.
The news comes from Hawley himself, who told Deadline at a recent panel for the upcoming second season that “Bryan asked to take his name off the show, so we have done that.”
In all fairness, despite his Executive Producer credit, Singer has really had little to do with Legion, which despite nominally taking place in his X-Universe, remains disconnected from the blockbusting mutant exploits of the movies. As Hawley explained:
“Very early on in the conception of the show, I met him a couple of times. He was interested in directing the pilot, but once I stepped in to direct, I haven’t spoken to him since that moment. Really, he was a name on the screen.”
However, Singer is slightly more involved in Fox’s well-received The Gifted, which was recently confirmed for a second season. Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn has stated that the network is investigating Singer’s involvement in the show and that they’re taking the allegations against him “very seriously.” Untangling him from The Gifted could be a tiny bit trickier than with Legion though, especially as he directed the pilot episode to much fanfare.
His removal as Executive Producer of these spinoff shows is a sad but justified end to Singer’s involvement in the X-Universe, where he had a huge hand in establishing the tone in the original X-Men that persists to this day in both Fox’s superhero movies and the MCU. Still, if you want the respect and admiration of your peers, maybe don’t pressure unwilling teenagers into sex. Just a thought.
Legion season 2 is set to premiere this April.
