Can you remember when Bryan Singer was a revered member of the “superhero director” community. Hell, the dude started the entire modern genre of realistic, costumed vigilantes with 2000’s X-Men (although Blade fans might disagree). In those early years, Singer could do absolutely no wrong. No one else had successfully created a group of super powered freaks into a realistic world, with a list of hero themed failures a mile long, starting with Spawn of course (again, Blade fans might disagree, but “Vampire killer” is a far easier pill to swallow than “Eye lasers man”). Though, in recent years the community’s been a bit bitter towards the Sing-meister.

Sure, we all felt betrayed when he abandoned the third X-Men movie in favor of Superman Returns, and a bit more heartbroken when Brett Ratner was chosen as his replacement, but we shouldn’t judge Singer for his change in projects. Hell, he offered to make the third X-Men flick once his Supes film was finished, but Fox refused, and proceeded with a different (and far less skilled) director.

Combine all of this with the rise of Marvel Studios, and the incessant fanboy chanting of “Send the Rights Back To Marvel!”, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for an entirely indignant, unfounded backlash.

Well, here’s an interesting anecdote for you. Hugh Jackman spent time with Christopher Nolan, while the two worked together on The Prestige, and eventually the conversation veered towards the X-Men franchise. Here it is, as told by Hugh Jackman:

There wasn’t really a superhero genre before X-Men came out. Funny enough, I remember catching a plane while we were promoting The Prestige with Chris Nolan [who] said to me that he’d always had the Batman in his mind. Even way back before 2000, he had the version of Batman that he ended up making in his head. He said, ‘when I went into the cinema and saw X-Men, I said damn, that’s my idea.’ The idea that you could really dive in to the emotional life, to the vulnerability of these characters and that, as well as being fantastical, amazing and action, is what’s going to hook people and make them care. That’s what Bryan did, he had a lot of courage to do that.”

SOURCE: Access Hollywood