Social media has not been kind to this Twentieth Century Fox billboard for X-Men: Apocalypse, which shows the titular villain, Apocalypse, choking Mystique, with Rose McGowan urging others to yell at Fox about using imagery of a violent act against a woman to sell the movie.
Well, Fox has now apologized and removed the billboard, admitting in a statement that "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. Once we realized how insensitive it was, we quickly took steps to remove those materials."
Generally, when apologies are made for boneheaded moves like this, they sound phony and ultimately self-serving, but Fox seems pretty genuinelt contrite here. That's almost worse, in a way, because who knows how many executives, male and female, saw this image and approved it, not expecting any blowback for Apocalypse and his impossible cheekbones attacking Jennifer Lawrence?
Wasn't there any other picture they could have used? Or even better, an image of Apocalypse choking Cyclops? No one likes Cyclops.
