10 Directors Who Almost Directed 2014's Biggest Movies

8. Matthew Vaughn Almost Directed X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Probably the most well known of all the directorial near-misses of the year, Matthew Vaughn was pretty much unceremoniously ousted as the X-Men franchise lead by the returning hero Bryan Singer, not that anyone would officially admit as much. When he was hired to make the Batman Begins-like First Class, Vaughn was sold the idea of a new trilogy, but after completion producer Lauren Schuler Donner seemingly pitched the sequel to Bryan Singer who initially came on board as a producer. From there, the writing must have been on the wall, and when Vaughn stepped aside to concentrate on Kingsman, it was hardly surprising. What It Would Have Been Like Different presumably, as Vaughn spoke about his vision for the start of the film: "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto." There probably wouldn't have been as much fan-service to the older cast, but the differences might not have been all that pronounced in tone: the two actually seem to share visions of the X-Men universe.