X-Men Movie Star's Disappearance Puts Future Projects Into Question

Fan Bingbing, who played Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past, has vanished, leaving plenty of questions behind -- including what happens to her projects already in development.

Fan, who is embroiled in an alleged tax evasion scandal in China, vanished from social media on July 23, and has not been seen in public since a visit to a children's hospital three weeks before that.

The Chinese government recently issued a statement assuring fans that her situation was "under control," according to Time, but that statement later vanished without explanation, too.

Fan is a massive star in China, with a following on the popular social network Sina Weibo roughly five times what Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has on Twitter. Besides acting, she is a singer and model, and as seen in X-Men as well as the Chinese version of Iron Man 3, the sense was that she had the potential to be a huge global star.

Her upcoming project 355, an all-female spy movie starring Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Lupita Nyong'o, was the talk of Cannes but it now appears as though Fan may end up recast.

The speculation, per Deadline, is that Fan may be "under government control." China is among one of the most heavily-regulated entertainment sectors in the world, and while they have grown to be a major player in Hollywood, situations like this remind studios, exhibitors, and fans that Beijing is not Hollywood.

It seems as though no formal allegations have been made against Fan, but the conventional wisdom is that if and when she resurfaces, it is unlikely that she will be allowed to leave China. The conventional wisdom seems to be that it is more likely she was detained by the government than that she is injured or in hiding.

In May, documents surfaced that seemed to indicate that Fan had been caught double-billing twice for the same work on a pair of as-yet-unidentified projects, and paying taxes only on half of the amount she actually made.

Since her employer would likely have been a co-defendant in such criminal allegations, there is tabloid speculation that Fan might be barred from acting for the time being, or that she is under house arrest. Jackie Chan was rumored to have suggested Fan seek asylum in the United States, but the action superstar has denied those reports.

Meanwhile, in addition to stalling upcoming projects or leaving producers with some tough decisions to make, Fan's disappearance and the allegations hanging over her have raised some questions about her completed work. Time reports that an upcoming Bruce Willis movie, Unbreakable Spirit, has reportedly removed her name and likeness from promotional materials.