Why Bryan Singer Wishes He Directed X-Men: The Last Stand

Bryan Singer was responsible for introducing the X-Men into cinema, so it's quite curious why after two movies, the filmmaker left the X-Men franchise to work on Warner Bros.' Superman Returns. While it may not be director Brett Ratner's fault that the third X-Men movie, The Last Stand, received less than stellar reviews, Singer said is now saying that he regrets that he didn't finish the trilogy that he started.

In an interview with Fandango, Singer was asked why he left the franchise when X-Men: The Last Stand was being made. The director admitted that he feels responsible for the movie's outcome, saying:

I like finishing things. I like finishing this particular iteration. I know X-Men 3 was quite rushed and I didn't complete it, and I felt a little like it was probably my responsibility to do that as a filmmaker, and I didn't.

As a result, when Singer came back to helm X-Men: Days of Future Past, in connection with the movie's storyline, the director made an effort to undo the past and bring back mutants who were killed in The Last Stand like Cyclops and Jean Grey. Singer said:

I might not have killed all those characters. But that's what was so fun about Days of Future Past. We had a joke on set: 'Hey Brian, you're not only directing Days of Future Past -- you're actually living it!' I was going back and making changes in history.

[With X-Men: The Last Stand], I don't fault anyone, including myself. It was just that circumstances didn't allow for it to happen.

While it's certainly true that the past cannot be undone in the real world, there will always be ways to improve and work on better stories. That said, X-Men: The Last Stand may have veered far from the original story in the comics, like that of the Dark Phoenix, but there's a new generation of X-Men now, and with a younger group of mutants like Sophie Turner's Jean Gray and Tye Sheridan's Cyclops, we might see these other stories revealed.

X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on Friday, May 27.

Read: Sophie Turner Talks About Playing Young Jean Grey, Comparison Over Game of Thrones and X-Men Fans

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