Fox Responds To X-Men: Apocalypse Poster Controversy

Fox has released a statement to apologize for an X-Men: Apocalypse billboard that shows Jennifer Lawrence‘s character Mystique being strangled by the male title villain. Social media has been on fire over the ads showing such violence to a woman. Rose McGowan posted a lengthy criticism to Facebook yesterday, demanding that Fox remove a huge billboard of the advert.

Rose posted, “There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film. There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid. The geniuses behind this, and I use that term lightly, need to to take a long hard look at the mirror and see how they are contributing to society. Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero? The outcry would be enormous. So let’s right this wrong. 20th Century Fox, since you can’t manage to put any women directors on your slate for the next two years, how about you at least replace your ad?”

The film studio responded to the backlash by saying that they were removing the image from promotional materials.  “In our enthusiasm to show the villainy of the character Apocalypse we didn’t immediately recognize the upsetting connotation of this image in print form,” the studio told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “Once we realized how insensitive it was, we quickly took steps to remove those materials. We apologize for our actions and would never condone violence against women.”

After drawing wide criticism from many on social media, X-Men: Apocalypse has now passed $300 million worldwide, a decent enough result, but far from amazing considering how long it’s been out in many overseas locations. It opened at a huge $100 million overseas last week and is expected to do well again.

collider.com