Matthew Vaughn Dropped Out of X-Men Not Because Of Star Wars; It was For Millar’s Secret Service

By / Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - 9:50PM
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It was rumored that Matthew Vaughn may have dropped out of X-Men: Days of Future Past to tackle Star Wars Episode VII.

However, that now appears not to be the case as we learn in an interview with CBR from Mark Millar that Matthew Vaughn departed X-Men (but staying on as possible producer) for the adaptation of Secret Service.

According to Millar, who now serves a consultant for Fox Studios, Vaughn dropped out because of the need to get Secret Service on the big screen sooner rather than later as there are more than a few imitators floating around Hollywood.

“What we’re doing is that ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is filming now, and next year we’ll start production on ‘Secret Service’ which I did with Dave Gibbons, and Matthew and I have been talking about that for years,” he said. “We thought Matthew was going to do X-Men first, but we found out there were actually a few imitators of ‘Secret Service’ in the works. People think you’re lying when you say you’re not trying to get your comics made into movies so quickly, but the two reasons it happens like that is first because it’s the best ad for the comic you’ll ever have. And for me, selling the book is the most important thing. The second reason is because people are always trying to rip you off. Somebody will start to work on a spec screenplay about your idea. There are three other projects I know of now about a James Bond kind of guy taking a street kid and turning him into a spy. Three screenplays were already going through Hollywood about this! So Matthew and I said, ‘f— this. We’re not letting anyone steal our ideas.'”

I suppose if Vaughn is not on Secret Service as the director he could still tackle Star Wars, but I think it’s a given that he is helming Secret Service. Still, Vaughn directed Millar’s Kick-Ass, but not the sequel, Kick-Ass 2.

Worth a mention is that Mark Hamill will be appearing in Secret Service, which may have led to the speculation about Star Wars.

Regarding X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer has recently been announced to be the new director.

And with Star Wars Episode VII set to debut in 2015, we should be expecting an announcement soon from Disney as to who the new director is.

For more Star Wars news head on over to the Cosmic Book News Star Wars Movie Hub.