X-Men: First Class Director Didn't Take Days of Future Past Because It "Wasn't Exciting Enough"

Back when X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn pulled out of X-Men: Days of Future Past and was replaced by X-Men director Bryan Singer, the Internet immediately started speculating as to why, and what terrible portents it might have for the film. It wasn't long before Fox's "Marvel guy" Mark Millar revealed that Vaughn had backed out of X-Men to direct The Secret Service, an adaptation of Millar's comic book series which apparently was in urgent competition with a similar property that another studio was trying to rush out to theaters in order to beat Fox. That's not exactly right, though, according to Vaughn. Speaking with Empire Magazine, he gave a much simpler explanation: "It didn't excite me enough," Vaughn said. "The thing that was exciting about it was bringing all these actors together. What a cast! But I've worked with great actors and I just thought, 'I've got to do my own thing.'" He added that he had nothing against the movie particularly, and that the script is strong. "The script was great for X-Men, but I had Secret Service in my head," Vaughn added. "And this has always been [director Bryan Singer's] machine. It's come full circle."