Accused sexual predator Bryan Singer is reportedly no longer attached to the X-Men TV spinoff series Legion.
The show’s creator, Noah Hawley, announced the change following the Legion TCA panel in Los Angeles this week.
“Bryan asked to take his name off the show, so we have done that,” Hawley told Deadline before emphasizing Singer’s limited role in the series. “Very early on in the conception of the show, I met him a couple of times. He was interested in directing the pilot, but once I stepped in to direct, I haven’t spoken to him since that moment. Really, he was a name on the screen.”
Singer, who directed the 2000 X-Men film and a number of X-Men sequels, was hit with a lawsuit accusing him raping a teenage boy in 2003. The alleged victim, Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, claims the 52-year-old director forced him to perform oral sex and anally penetrated him on a yacht in Washington state. Sanchez-Guzman was 17 at the time of the alleged incident.
“Bryan categorically denies these allegations and will vehemently defend this lawsuit to the very end,” Singer’s attorney, Andrew Bettler, told TMZ last month. “When Sanchez-Guzman filed for bankruptcy only a few years ago, he failed to disclose this alleged claim when he was supposed to identify all of his assets, but conveniently, now that the bankruptcy court discharged all of his debts, he is able to recall the alleged events.”
Last month, it was announced Singer was dropped as the director of the upcoming Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody after reported constant disagreements and at least one altercation with the film’s star Rami Malek.
It is still unclear if Singer will be credited as an executive producer for Fox’s Marvel series The Gifted. According to Deadline, his status on the series is “more complicated because Singer directed The Gifted pilot, which contractually guarantees him an EP credit.”
Lauren Shuler Donner, who produced all of the X-Men films in addition to executive producing Legion and The Gifted, spoke about Singer’s controversy without giving too many details.
“Listen, I love Bryan, but Bryan has a lot of demons. Bryan has some problems, and Bryan needs to take care of his personal problems,” she told Rotten Tomatoes. “That’s all I can say.”
The second season of Legion is scheduled to premiere in April.
