Apparently Magneto and Professor X didn’t ask nicely enough when they wanted Matthew Vaughn to join the X-Men. Vaughn directed the awesome X-Men: First Class in 2011 and was until today signed on for the sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past. He was a big part of what made First Class work so well. The other big part was having Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy working together as Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier, respectively. They are two amazing actors and both have confirmed their return for Days of Future Past. Jennifer Lawrence, who played the young Mystique, is also set to reprise her role. But the man that brought them all together in the first place, Matthew Vaughn (also known for Kick-Ass), is no longer taking the helm as director.
The news is not welcome to fans of the franchise, because he did a great job in bringing back the old magic after whatever bad taste X-Men 3: The Last Stand left. The strangest part about the departure is that Vaughn isn’t actually leaving the production in his rear view mirror. He’s still signed on as producer and he even helped to write up the treatment for the film (an outline for the script which was eventually filled in by Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg). So while he won’t be sitting in the chair, Matthew Vaughn will still be a name on the movie. I suppose it’s nice that he’s left his mark, while continuing to work with Fox (who own the rights to the X-Men) on his next project Secret Service, but I think I would have preferred his name more towards the front of the credits.
However, I’m not giving up hope entirely because Vaughn apparently pulled the same sort of stunt while working on X-Men: First Class. He pulled out of early production, only to change his mind and return to the film. But even if he doesn’t end up coming back to the chair, we may not be left with some no-name idiot taking over the Mutants. The word that is being thrown around the rumor mill is that Bryan Singer will take over the reigns. If you can remember way back to 2000, Singer is the one who brought us the original X-Men movie. He also ended up directing the sequel, X2, in 2003. Both were great films that I have watched more times than I can count. While his record may have been scarred by the disaster that was Superman Returns, hopefully by staying away from Kryptonite he can avoid a bad review. Singer was originally signed on as just a producer for Days of Future Past, so the news that he might be switching places with Matthew Vaughn isn’t too much of a stretch. With Bryan’s previous experience making a good sequel, I’m sure he could pull this off. The July 18th, 2014 release date is coming closer all the time, so we can only hope that Fox will figure out who will be leading the X-Men into the future.
What do you think of the director swap on X-Men: Days of Future Past? Are you mad that Matthew Vaughn is leaving or do you think Bryan Singer would be a better choice? Let us know in the comments below!