When Matthew Vaughn announced that he’d be departing X-Men: Days of Future Past, many were confused. He struck gold with X-Men: First Class, so why not return for the sequel? Recent rumors point to Star Wars: Episode VII being the reason for his departure, but Mark Millar, who oversees FOX’s superhero films, has a different reason for Vaughn leaving.
Millar says that Vaughn left so he can get to work on The Secret Service, which is an adaptation of Millar’s comic book that needed to go into production ASAP to beat other copycat projects that are currently in the works.
Speaking with CBR, Millar said:
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. 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*ck this. We’re not letting anyone steal our ideas.’
If Millar is correct, and there’s no confirmation on whether he is or not, then where does that leave Star Wars: Episode VII? Well, probably not in the hands of Matthew Vaughn. I mean, he could do both films but it’s not likely as Star Wars would be a massive undertaking and would probably take up all his free time.
What do you think? Should Vaughn try to tackle both Star Wars and The Secret Service? Was it a smart choice choosing The Secret Service over X-Men?
Let us know in the comments below.