10 Directors Who Bailed On Their Own Movie Franchises (But Should Have Stuck Around)

3. Bryan Singer - X-Men

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Bryan Singer helped popularise the comic book movie with his enormously successful X-Men, and the superior follow-up, X2. However, Singer bailed from X-Men: The Last Stand in order to helm Superman Returns, leaving Brett Ratner to undo much of Singer's good work and essentially run it into the ground.

After the success of Matthew Vaughn's prequel X-Men: First Class, Singer was lured back to X-Men for the impending prequel-sequel, Days of Future Past, but one has to wonder whether Singer considers his initial departure worth it.

After all, Superman Returns was a box office disappointment and proved divisive with audiences, whereas a third X-Men film under Singer's supervision would surely have had a more reverent regard for the characters, and not so brazenly p*ssed all over the source material. It's great to see Singer back in the saddle, but did he really have to leave in the first place?

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Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.