When it comes to the X-Men franchise, the all-over-the-place timeline isn’t the only thing that’s scrambled. Long before the release of the first movie in 2000, different big-name directors attached to R-rated Wolverine movies and undeveloped Magneto prequels have come and gone.
Some of the projects finally came to fruition under the direction of a different filmmaker, and others were completely abandoned, despite sounding incredible. Between Rupert Wyatt helming a solo Gambit movie or Robert Rodriguez taking the reigns on Deadpool, there are so many visionary directors that could have elevated the source material for the big screen perfectly.
10 Paul W.S. Anderson
Being best known for spearheading the Resident Evil movies, Paul W.S. Anderson was close to setting up another long-running franchise. Anderson being considered to direct an X-Men movie dates all the way back to the beginning, as he was in talks before even Bryan Singer signed on to direct the first movie. However, the director Anderson turned down X-Men to direct Event Horizon instead, which is a decision that Anderson probably regrets considering how successful the X-Men franchise has become.
9 Rupert Wyatt
It’s strange that Gambit, who is a fan favorite when it comes to the comic books, hasn’t been seen in any of the X-Men movies except for one. However, there had been a solo movie about the mutant in development over at 20th Century Fox for years, and Rupert Wyatt was attached to direct. It was planned to be a heist movie that spanned decades and saw Channing Tatum in the lead role. Wyatt described the unreleased Gambit movie as a Godfather meets mutants type movie, which possibly sounds even more incredible than any other abandoned idea 2oth Century Fox has had.
8 Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky, director of visually stunning but difficult to watch movies like Requiem For a Dream and Black Swan, had been wanting to make a comic book movie for years. At one point, Aronofsky was attached to reboot Batman before Christopher Nolan came on to the scene. But his chance at making a movie about a troubled vigilante didn’t come closer than when he was attached to direct The Wolverine.
Unfortunately, his commitment to the project fell through because the director “didn’t want to travel,” according to Cinema Blend. But given how Aronofsky is such a visionary filmmaker and is used to having complete control of any project, that same Cinema Blend article speculates that 20th Century Fox weren’t willing to give him the control he wanted.
7 Robert Rodriguez
Though even the director himself claimed the rumors were overblown, it was looking like Robert Rodriguez was a shoo-in to direct Deadpool. As Deadpool was in development hell for years, this was long before the movie finally went into production, and back then, Rodriguez seemed like the perfect filmmaker to helm the movie about the merc with the mouth.
The director’s movies perfectly mix comedy with over-the-top action, whether it’s the vampire-road trip movie From Dusk Til Dawn, or the B-movie influenced Machete. And though a Rodriguez helmed Deadpool sounds like something dreams are made of, the filmmaker just couldn’t fit it into his busy schedule.
6 Richard Kelly
As Bryan Singer, who had directed the first two X-Men movies to huge amounts of acclaim, wasn’t returning for the threequel, there were a lot of contenders to take on the mantle. One of the most interesting contenders was Richard Kelly, the man behind Donnie Darko.
The director of the cult sci-fi hit was a front runner to direct X-Men: The Last Stand. And considering how there are so many bizarre fan theories about Donnie Darko, a mutant movie under his name would have been wild. The only thing that stopped it from happening was that Kelly wanted to follow-up Donnie Darko with Southland Tales, another absurd cult hit.
5 Josh Schwartz
Though he got his start in TV, Josh Schwartz almost directed First Class, and it would have been an interesting take on the movie. Considering that the writer created both The O.C. and Gossip Girl, the film would probably have been more of a teen drama than what it turned out to be. Though some fans may turn their nose up at the idea, First Class features many superheroes in their teenage years, so it could have made for a brilliant coming-of-age type movie.
4 Zack Snyder
Out of all the directors who almost helmed an X-Men movie, Zack Snyder is the most well-versed in the genre than any other. He is responsible for making not just one, but two iconic superhero movies. Watchmen is a fascinating decade-spanning odyssey, and Justice League is the longest superhero movie of all time. A Snyder-directed X-Men film probably would have been great, as those two aforementioned movies both juggle multiple superheroes incredibly well.
However, it was a solo movie that the filmmaker was close to snagging, as 20th Century Fox approached him to direct X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Snyder refused unless it was R-rated. If Snyder did end up directing a Wolverine movie, it’s hard to imagine how it’d turn out, but two things are for sure, it would be visually stunning, and it’d be very, very long.
3 James Cameron / Kathryn Bigelow
Despite there being a story arc in Entourage in which James Cameron produced and directed Aquaman, and it had the highest grossing opening of all time (of course it did,) Cameron has never actually made a superhero movie. However, it did come extremely close, as Cameron was producing an X-Men movie in 1989, more than a decade before the first film was released.
The movie was planned on being called Wolverine and the X-Men, and Kathryn Bigelow, the queen of political action movies, was attached to direct. But though a Cameron produced/Bigelow directed X-Men movie sounds brilliant, Bigelow went on to direct the smash hit Point Break instead, so it’s not all bad.
2 Joss Whedon
Along with Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, Joss Whedon was in the running to direct The Last Stand. Whedon has a long history with X-Men, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer is inspired by Kitty Pryde, and he even contributed to the screenplay of the first X-Men movie, so it seemed like a no brainer to have him direct the third movie. But 20th Century Fox missed its chance to grab Whedon, as he turned the studio down to work on an adaptation of Wonder Woman, which never actually happened.
1 David S. Goyer
Though he’s more of a writer than a director, David S. Goyer is a phenomenal writer, as he co-wrote Batman Begins with Christopher Nolan, and came up with the story for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. It’s almost as if nobody in the movie industry knows how to adapt comic book material more than Goyer, as he has so many credits under his belt, and that would have reached its apex if X-Men Origins: Magneto wasn’t put on hold.
The writer was set to direct the origins movie, but due to the negative reception of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the studio backed down. However, most of Goyer’s plans seemed to have been used in X-Men: First Class, which turned out to be one of the best X-Men movies ever.
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