8. X-Men Could Have Had A Worthy Ending
The Films You Know: With third and fourth Amazing Spider-Mans, as well as second and third Man Of Steels already announced, it looks like Hollywood is rather reluctant to let go of superheroes. One franchise that has lasted the length of the current craze without succuming to an all out reboot is Marvels original superhero team, the X-Men. Originally brought to allegorical life by Bryan Singer, they shaped the fledgling genre to be what it is today. But when it came to the third film, with an opportunity to tie up the dangling plot threads, Singer jumped ship, leaving Matthew Vaughn and then eventually Bret Ratner to direct The Last Stand. And the rest, as they say, was rubbish.
The Films That Almost Happened: Throughout X-2, Singer had been building up to the Dark Phoenix arc, sowing the basic plot seeds and ending on a teasing image. Sadly, when Ratner took over Jean Grey was sidelined in favour of too many villains and plot retreads of the previous films, introducing a cure to mutation (because thats how science works). We can only guess at what sort of film Singer had planned, but going by the less convoluted films in the series he directed and the sole focused Days Of Future Past coming next year, it would have honoured the set up.