Singer’s consistent presence atop the industry is a perfect example of Hollywood’s “white male privilege problem,” as the writer Ira Madison III noted in The Daily Beast. A broader culture of permissiveness has allowed influential men in entertainment to weather almost any scandal and continue to build their careers. There have been 10 X-Men films including Singer’s first in 2000; men have directed all of them, with Singer himself helming four and Brett Ratner (a man dogged by multiple accusations of sexual harassment) one. Hollywood has only grown more dependent on these big blockbusters, which are rarely ever directed by women and people of color, in part because studios keep rewarding filmmakers—like Singer—known for erratic workplace behavior or worse.

Twenty years ago, two separate lawsuits alleged that underage male actors were required to strip naked on the set of Singer’s 1998 film Apt Pupil for a shower scene; those suits were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence. Other allegations surfaced for Singer weeks before the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014. A 31-year-old actor named Michael Egan III claimed Singer, and a ring of other Hollywood power players, had groomed, given drugs to, and sexually abused him when he was between the ages of 15 and 17. Singer’s attorney called the accusations an “attempted shakedown,” and Singer himself called them “completely false.” Another similar charge soon followed from an anonymous British actor though that lawsuit was eventually dismissed; Singer’s lawyer called the claims “totally untrue.”

Egan’s suit was withdrawn after he reportedly refused to accept a $100,000 settlement and was dropped by his lawyers (and after Singer’s attorneys waged an intense publicity campaign against him). Egan’s former attorneys later apologized and paid a seven-figure settlement over Egan’s similar lawsuits against Hollywood executives Garth Ancier and David Neuman. Those suits contained comparable charges to the ones Egan made against Singer, and were described as “provably false” by the attorneys, which Singer’s lawyers point to as proof of Egan’s unreliability as an accuser. Singer survived the scandals, but rumors about them have followed him ever since. When a new wave of revelations about sexual misconduct in the industry began to rock Hollywood this year, some observers wondered if others would come forward with stories about Singer.

In addition to these allegations, Singer is known in Hollywood gossip circles for frequently arriving on set late and actually no-showing at times for Superman Returns and X-Men: Apocalypse, just two of the giant-budget productions he’s mounted over the years. He famously fought with Halle Berry while making X2 and reportedly locked horns with Malek on Bohemian Rhapsody, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that the actor had complained to the studio about the director’s tardiness and unreliability, and that the two had a heated argument that ended with Singer “throwing an object.” Singer denied the claims, saying he and Malek eventually “put those differences behind us.”